THE  BIBLE  AW  LIFE 


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EDAVIN  HOLT  HUGHES 


'^'Iliiiliiiili'l- 


II, 


MM. 

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BS  538  .H83  1915 
Hughes,  Edwin  Holt,  1866 
The  Bible  and  life 


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THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 


BY 


^ 


EDWIN  HOLT  HUGHES 

Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
EDWIN  HOLT  HUGHES 


TO 
CHARLES  RAISBECK  MAGEE 


CONTENTS 

CHAFTKR                                                                                                                                                 PAGE 

Introduction 9 

Foreword 

11 

Biographical  Note       .     . 

13 

The  Human  Outline     . 

19 

l^.  The  Bible  and  Life 

21 

II.  The  Bible  and  Man      .     . 

49 

III.  The  Bible  and  Home    . 

76 

^IV.  The  Bible  and  Education 

102 

V.  The  Bible  and  Work 

125 

VI.  The  Bible  and  Wealth     . 

151 

VII.  The  Bible  and  Sorrow 

185 

VIII.  The  Bible  and  Practice    . 

213 

INTRODUCTION 

By  the  courteous  invitation  of  the  President, 
Faculty,  and  Trustees  of  DePauw  University, 
the  writer  had  the  privilege  of  delivering  the 
first  series  of  lectures  under  the  foundation 
as  endowed  by  his  friend,  the  Rev.  Marma- 
duke  H.  Mendenhall.  The  following  com- 
ments are  the  only  introductory  words  that 
need  be  given. 

The  terms  of  the  lectures  were  kept  strictly 
within  the  radius  of  real  life.  The  author 
does  not  claim  to  be  a  biblical  scholar  in  any 
technical  sense.  Nor  did  he  deem  that  the 
primary  need  of  the  students  whom  he  ad- 
dressed would  be  met  by  a  discussion  of 
theories  of  inspiration  or  of  dates  and  author- 
ships. College  students  have  a  passion  for 
reality,  and  the  most  convincing  apologetic 
for  them  is  the  argument  from  actual  living. 

Under  the  instruction  of  the  founder  the 
lectures  are  to  be  placed  in  permanent  form 
for  the  students  of  the  University  and  for  the 
wider  public.  The  lecturer  having  been  re- 
warded by  the  close  attention  of  hundreds  of 

9 


10  INTRODUCTION 

youthful  hearers,  the  writer  will  have  a  still 
greater  reward  if  those  who  heard  the  words 
as  spoken  in  Meharry  Hall  are  joined  by  the 
larger  company  who  will  listen  for  the  voice 
of  the  Spirit  in  these  pages. 

Edwin  Holt  Hughes. 


tTHE  MENDENHALL  LECTURES 
FOREWORD 

The  late  Reverend  Marmaduke  H.  Menden- 
hall,  D.D.,  of  the  North  Indiana  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  donated 
to  DePauw  University  the  sum  of  ten  thou- 
sand dollars,  the  purpose  and  conditions  of 
which  gift  are  set  forth  in  his  bequest  as 
follows : 

The  object  of  this  gift  is  "to  found  a  per- 
petual lectureship  on  the  evidences  of  the 
Divine  Origin  of  Christianity,  to  be  known  as 
the  Mendenhall  Foundation.  The  income  from 
this  fund  shall  be  used  for  the  support  of  an 
Annual  Lectureship,  the  design  of  which 
shall  be  the  exhibition  of  the  proofs,  from  all 
sources,  of  the  Divine  Origin,  Inspiration, 
and  Authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
course  of  lectures  shall  be  delivered  annually 
before  the  University  and  the  public  without 
any  charge  for  admission. 

"The  lecturers  shall  be  chosen  by  an  elect- 
ing body  consisting  of  the  President  of  the 
University,  the  five  senior  members  of  the 
Faculty  of  the  College  of  Liberal  Arts,  and 
the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  sub- 

11 


12  FOREWORD 

ject  to  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Bishops 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The  lec- 
turers must  be  persons  of  high  and  wide  re- 
pute, of  broad  and  varied  scholarship,  who 
firmly  adhere  to  the  evangelical  system  of 
Christian  faith.  The  selection  of  lecturers 
may  be  made  from  the  world  of  Christian 
scholarship  without  regard  to  denominational 
divisions.  Each  course  of  lectures  is  to  be 
published  in  book  form  by  an  eminent  publish- 
ing house  and  sold  at  cost  to  the  Faculty  and 
students  of  the  University." 

George  R.  Grosb^ 
President  of  DePauw  University. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Inasmuch  as  future  lecturers  on  the  Men- 
denhall  Foundation  may  not  have  had  the 
privilege  of  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
founder,  it  is  doubtless  good  that  this  first 
volume  may  record  the  outlines  of  his  life 
and  character.  Marmaduke  H.  Mendenhall 
was  born  at  Guilford,  North  Carolina,  May 
13,  1836.  He  died  at  Union  City,  Indiana, 
October  9,  1905.  He  was  the  son  of  Himelius 
and  Priscilla  Mendenhall,  who,  when  their 
son  was  about  one  year  old,  came  northward 
and  settled  near  Peru,  Indiana.  Doctor  Men- 
denhall did  not  suggest  in  manner  or  bear- 
ing that  he  was  Southern  born.  Had  one 
chosen  to  judge  of  his  birthplace  by  the 
man  himself,  one  would  have  said  that  he 
was  a  typical  son  of  New  England.  His 
deeper  self  was  typified  by  his  personal  ap- 
pearance. He  was  tall,  stately,  dignified, 
serious,  earnest. 

He  joined  the  North  Indiana  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1856. 
Those  days  were  still  pioneer,  and  he  entered 
gladly  into  the  sacrificial  ministry  of  that 

13 


14  BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

period.  It  is  a  singular  coincidence  that  lie 
was  doubtless  the  first  minister  of  his  faith 
to  begin  work  near  Union  City,  where  he 
closed  his  earthly  labors.  It  was  his  privilege, 
also,  to  build  the  first  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  in  the  city  where  he  died.  The  history 
of  his  ministry  shows  that  he  served  all  classes 
of  charges — country,  city,  village,  county  seat. 
Several  times  the  record  is  dotted  with  the 
word  "Mission,"  which  would  indicate  that 
he  frequently  followed  the  apostolic  fashion 
of  building  Strictly  on  his  own  foundations. 
He  came  to  a  place  of  leadership  in  his  own 
Conference.  To  the  day  of  his  death  he  was 
an  influential  factor  in  all  its  plans  and  pro- 
grams. Though  he  had  been  technically 
"superannuated"  for  sixteen  years  prior  to  his 
death,  his  mind  kept  its  full  vigor,  and  his 
word  kept  its  full  weight.  Twice  he  was 
elected  a  reserve  delegate  to  the  General 
Conference,  while  in  1880  he  was  chosen  as 
one  of  the  regular  delegates. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  Dr. 
Mendenhall  showed  the  signs  of  a  remarkable 
mind,  and  at  the  end  of  his  ministry  he  was 
still  manifesting  a  keen  interest  in  current 
questions  and  in  theological  problems.  His 
library  to  the  last  was  freshened  by  the  pur- 
chase of  new  books.  When  he  turned  his 
many  volumes  over  to  Gammon  Theological 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  15 

Seminary  that  institution  did  not  receive  hun- 
dreds of  antiquated  volumes,  but  rather  a 
collection  brought  down  to  date  and  selected 
by  a  master  judgment.  The  intellectual, 
though  suffused  at  times  by  a  proper  and 
restrained  emotion,  was  his  noticeable  char- 
acteristic. He  was  given  to  thorough  analysis. 
He  was  markedly  painstaking.  Records  that 
he  made  of  the  conduct  of  his  public  services 
indicate  that  the  final  details  were  all  re- 
garded, and  that  hymns  and  Scripture  lessons 
were  chosen  mth  a  view  to  their  bearing  on 
the  instruction  of  the  day. 

Being  a  vigorous  personality,  he  held  his 
views  with  strength.  He  was  keenly  loyal  to 
his  convictions,  whether  these  related  to 
methods  of  work  or  to  statements  of  doctrine. 
In  his  advocacy  or  in  his  antagonism  he  was 
always  frank  and  open.  His  opponent  could 
see  him  standing  out  in  plain  view,  with  no 
effort  to  protect  himself  by  secrecy.  Men 
could  never  doubt  his  sincerity,  however  much 
they  might  question  the  correctness  of  his 
positions.  He  knew  no  sinuous  paths.  He 
was  as  direct  as  sunlight,  and  he  traveled  in 
straight  lines. 

In  all  his  spheres  of  work  Dr.  Mendenhall 
made  deep  and  lasting  impressions.  Highly 
intellectual  as  he  was,  he  was  still  an  excellent 
administrator.      His    business    qualifications 


16  BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

were  signal.  Every  matter  committed  to  Mm 
was  cared  for  with  scrupulous  nicety.  He 
left  no  loose  ends  to  any  of  his  work.  Although 
his  salaries  were  never  large,  as  salaries  are 
counted  to-day,  he  secured  a  comfortable 
property,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
throughout  his  lifetime  he  was  a  generous 
contributor  to  good  causes. 

He  served  as  a  trustee  of  De  Pauw  Univer- 
sity longer  than  other  member  of  his  Confer- 
ence had  served,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 
From  1878  to  1887  he  served  in  this  capacity, 
while  in  1896  he  was  reelected  and  was  an 
active  worker  on  the  board  up  to  the  end  of 
his  life.  He  aided  in  pushing  the  institution 
through  its  crisis.  The  files  of  this  writer 
disclose  a  careful  and  helpful  correspondence 
upon  matters  vital  to  the  welfare  of  the  Uni- 
versity. In  the  sessions  of  the  board  he  was 
always  urbane  and  conciliatory.  He  crowned 
the  work  of  his  life  by  leaving  to  the  University 
all  of  his  estate.  Upon  the  increase  of  the 
estate  to  a  certain  figure,  the  income  was  to 
be  used  in  founding  a  lectureship  on  Revealed 
Religion,  especially  as  related  to  the  Holy 
Bible. 

Although  the  writer  was  an  intimate  friend 
of  Dr.  Mendenhall,  he  cannot  remember 
any  statements  made  to  him  which  would 
indicate  the  founder's  views   of  inspiration 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  17 

or  of  the  other  questions  that  have  made  the 
biblical  problem  of  the  last  two  decades.  But 
his  library  showed  that  he  was  fully  aware 
of  the  modern  discussions.  Perhaps  he  felt 
that  a  lectureship,  broadly  founded  and  prac- 
tically directed,  w^ould  be  of  special  service 
to  the  church  in  a  time  of  transition.  The 
writer  entertains  the  conviction  that,  even 
though  Dr.  Mendenhall  might  not  agree  fully 
wdth  all  that  is  found  in  the  following  pages, 
he  would  still  appreciate  the  effort  to  bring 
the  Bible  within  its  divine  purpose  as  a  Book 
of  Life. 

The  home  of  the  founder  revealed  him  as 
a  model  of  courtesy  and  kindliness.  Friends 
who  saw  him  by  his  own  fireside  noted  the 
benignity  that  matched  his  dignity,  the  ten- 
derness that  equaled  his  seriousness.  Those 
who  came  into  the  nearer  circle  of  his  life 
regarded  him  most  highly.  To  the  wife  who 
survives  him  he  was  in  all  ways  a  helper, 
gentle  in  demeanor  and  loyally  careful  in  the 
administration  of  her  interests.  As  the  writer 
reviews  the  drift  of  these  first  lectures  de- 
livered under  this  foundation,  he  is  persuaded 
that  the  founder's  relation  to  Himself,  to  his 
Home,  to  his  Work,  to  his  Wealth,  to  his 
Pleasure  and  Sorrow,  and  particularly  to  the 
cause  of  Education,  is  not  misrepresented 
herein.    The  Bible  was  his  Book,  and  its  ideals 


18  BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

were  achieved  in  his  living.  It  is  the  sincere 
wish  that  these  pages  may  accomplish  some- 
what the  main  purpose  of  the  founder's  heart 
in  making  the  divine  Book  a  brighter  lamp 
for  the  guidance  of  youth. 


THE   HUMAN   OUTLINE 

It  may  be  well  to  give  in  human  form  the 
outline  which  mil  be  followed  in  these  pages. 
The  story  is  the  story  of  millions  of  men  on 
as  many  days. 

A  man  awoke  one  morning  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  himself.  Looking  about  he  saw  the 
familiar  sights  of  his  own  home,  and  soon  he 
heard  the  voices  of  his  wife  and  children.  Ere 
long  the  little  people  were  on  their  way  to 
school.  The  man  proceeded  to  his  work,  while 
his  wife  took  up  her  domestic  duties.  He 
returned  in  the  evening  with  the  proceeds  of 
his  day's  labor  added  to  his  stock  of  goods. 
He  partook  of  the  evening  meal  and  then 
indulged  in  the  pleasure  of  ^^the  children's 
hour."  He  later  called  upon  a  friend  who 
had  met  with  sorrow  and  in  the  trouble  of 
his  friend  he  found  a  fresh  reminder  of  his 
own  affliction.  He  retired  in  due  season  to 
his  slumber  and  went  forth  the  next  morning 
to  make  the  like  round  of  the  day. 

This  is  a  piece  of  constant  biography.  It 
could  be  duplicated  by  reference  to  many  a 
personal  journal  and  diary.    If  we  analyze  the 

19 


20  THE  HUMAN  OUTLINE 

description,  we  shall  find  that  the  man  was 
driven  to  take  a  relation  to  Himself,  to  Home, 
to  Education,  to  Work,  to  Wealth,  to  Pleasure 
and  Sorrow. 

The  aim  of  this  book  is  to  state  somewhat 
the  bearing  that  the  Bible  has  upon  these  great 
departments  of  our  human  living.  The  apolo- 
getic tests  the  Book  under  the  terms  of  this 
human  Outline. 


CHAPTER   I 
The  Bible  and  Life 

The  Bible  is  a  book  of  power.  The  man 
wlio  would  deny  this  statement  would  impugn 
his  own  intelligence.  It  is  to-day  the  Book 
of  the  strongest  nations.  If  the  strongest 
nations  selected  it  for  their  inspiration  and 
guidance,  that  fact  is  significant.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Bible  has  trained  the  strongest 
nations,  that  fact  is  more  significant.  In 
either  case  power  is  lodged  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. The  miracle  is  this:  That  a  very 
ancient  Book  rules  a  very  modern  world. 

Various  explanations  are  given.  Some  men 
say  that  the  Bible  is  powerful  because  it  has 
been  promoted  by  a  powerful  organization. 
But  this  explanation  needs  explaining.  How 
did  the  Bible  secure  the  aid  of  this  organiza- 
tion? Why  did  not  the  organization  take  the 
Dialogues  of  Plato  and  become  the  evangel  of 
Socrates'  splendid  wisdom?  Why  did  it  elect 
one  particular  volume?  And  what  would 
have  been  the  effect  on  its  own  life  if  it  had 
chosen  some  other  book?  Would  the  writings 
of  Marcus  Aurelius  or  of  Seneca,  with  their 

21 


22  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

high  moral  grade  and  their  marked  religious 
insight,  have  served  the  holy  purpose  as  effec- 
tively? When  we  attempt  to  substitute  some 
other  book  in  the  Bible's  place,  our  hesitancy 
quickly  passes  on  to  positive  refusal.  The 
Christian  Church,  with  any  other  volume  as 
its  textbook,  is  simply  inconceivable. 

Other  men  will  say  that  the  power  of  the 
Bible  has  come  from  its  girding  by  a  doctrine 
of  authority.  This  explanation  must  likewise 
be  explained.  Could  a  Book  without  inherent 
authority  be  long  maintained  among  intel- 
ligent peoples  on  the  basis  of  artificial  author- 
ity? Why  is  the  Bible  the  best  seller  and  the 
greatest  worker  in  those  lands  where  it  has 
been  set  free  to  yield  its  own  message?  What 
is  the  peculiar  quality  in  the  Book  that  has 
saved  any  theory  of  its  authority  from  appear- 
ing absurd?  The  Bible  showed  its  power  long 
before  men  adopted  any  theory  of  its  power. 
Doubtless  the  claim  of  authority  has  increased 
the  influence  of  the  Book  over  certain  types 
of  minds.  Still  it  may  be  confidently  asserted 
that  the  claim  of  authority  has  depended  far 
more  on  the  power  of  the  Bible  than  the  power 
of  the  Bible  has  depended  on  the  claim  of 
authority.  The  effect  should  not  be  allowed 
to  pass  itself  off  as  the  main  cause. 

Nor  does  the  power  of  the  Bible  depend 
upon  mere  bulk.     Shakespeare  wrote  enough 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  23 

to  make  several  Bibles.  So  did  Scott.  So  did 
Dickens.  So  did  Parkman.  If  the  Bible  is  a 
moral  and  spiritual  Encyclopedia,  its  material 
has  been  strangely  condensed.  It  is  a  brief 
Book,  yet  out  of  its  small  compass  men  gather 
texts  for  fifty  years  of  preaching  and  at  the 
close  of  their  life's  task  feel  that  the  pages 
are  still  exhaustless.  The  Bible  has  inspired 
literature  far  beyond  its  own  bulk.  It  is  a 
small  library  of  books  gathered  from  many 
authors,  but  it  has  filled  great  libraries  with 
commentaries  and  sermons  and  discussions. 
Its  brevities  have  provoked  measureless  pages 
of  writing.  The  world  is  big,  yet  it  is  measur- 
ably ruled  by  a  small  Book. 

It  would  seem  likewise  that  a  Book  written 
so  long  ago  would  fail  of  the  element  of  time- 
liness. That  an  old  volume  should  keep  its 
place  in  a  new  century  is  in  itself  an  anomaly. 
The  last  of  the  Bible  was  penned  hundreds  of 
years  since.  Accepting  the  most  radical  views 
as  to  dates,  its  youngest  book  was  produced 
quite  more  than  a  millennium  and  a  half  ago. 
Meanwhile  the  world  has  been  making  amaz- 
ing progress.  We  boast  of  our  achievements 
in  transportation  and  communication.  All 
ancient  things  seem  to  be  outgrown,  save  only 
the  Bible.  The  books  that  were  written  as 
contemporaries  of  parts  of  the  great  Book 
have  either  slipped  into  oblivion  or  are  known 


24  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

to-day  only  by  the  intellectually  elect.  The 
classics  are  studied  by  a  small  circle  of 
scholars.  The  average  man  knows  nothing  of 
Virgil,  or  Cicero,  or  Homer,  by  any  direct 
contact  with  the  works  of  those  authors.  But 
the  Bible,  which  is  out  of  date  by  the  calendar, 
is  not  out  of  date  by  its  own  meaning.  It  is 
singularly  contemporaneous.  Its  different 
portions  were  called  forth  by  passing  events 
and  the  Book  itself  is  clearly  touched  by  its 
own  times.  For  all  that,  eternity  appears  to 
have  lodged  itself  in  its  contemporaneousness. 
The  twentieth  century,  eager  and  thrilling  as 
it  is,  accepts  a  Guide  Book  from  the  distant 
years.  Koman  Law  and  Greek  Art  are  filtered 
to  the  new  age  through  modern  channels.  The 
Bible  itself  comes  to  us  more  simple  and  more 
powerful  than  any  modern  interpretations  of 
its  messages.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  it 
declines  to  apply  to  itself  its  own  figure  of 
speech  about  the  new  wine  in  the  old  bottles. 
The  Bible  defies  geographical  distance  as 
well  as  calendar  distance.  For  the  most  part 
its  record  relates  to  what  happened  in  a  small 
and  remote  section  of  the  earth.  It  reaches 
its  climax  in  an  obscure  province  which  was 
smaller  than  many  a  modern  county.  The 
customs  of  which  it  tells  are  mostly  gone. 
Sandals  and  tents  and  camels  and  parchments 
are  curiosities  in  the  new  lands  and  new  times. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  25 

Much  of  the  setting  of  biblical  events  is  wholly 
unknown  to  our  day,  and  so  must  be  repro- 
duced for  our  children  in  pictures  and  for 
our  adults  in  descriptions.  An  Oriental  Book 
is  the  chief  literature  of  an  Occidental  world. 

In  spite  of  its  small  size,  its  great  age,  its 
cramped  geography,  its  vivid  Orientalism,  the 
Bible  keeps  its  mastery.  What  is  the  explana- 
tion? 

It  must  be  that  the  Bible  appeals  to  some- 
thing fundamental  in  life  itself.  The  final 
test  of  inspiration  must,  of  course,  be  found 
in  what  the  Bible  does  for  life.  A  book  that 
is  not  inspiring  cannot  be  proved  to  be  in- 
spired. It  cannot  give  what  it  does  not  have 
and  it  must  surely  have  received  what  it  gives. 
It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  confuse 
formal  truthfulness  with  inspiring  vitality. 
The  description  of  a  street  scene,  dealing  with 
the  passing  relations  of  pedestrians,  wagons, 
trees,  birds,  houses ;  the  lengths  and  widths  of 
sidewalks  and  streets;  the  figures  of  popula- 
tion ;  the  social  status  of  the  various  groups — 
all  this  may  be  told  with  exact  and  mathe- 
matical truthfulness.  It  may  be  correct  and 
still  not  be  inspired  or  inspiring.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son 
is  a  story  which  in  its  precise  detail  may 
represent  something  that  never  occurred.  But 
it  has  impressed  the  world  as  both  inspired 


26  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

and  inspiring.  Its  words  haunt  and  pierce 
and  coax  and  subdue  men.  This  indicates 
that  a  storj  given  for  a  spiritual  purpose 
shows  more  essential  truthfulness  than  does 
a  description  given  for  formal  exactness.  The 
reason  is  that  the  parable  appeals  to  some- 
thing fundamental  in  life  itself.  The  son  and 
the  father  are  ever  with  us.  God  and  his 
children  are  the  everlasting  facts.  The  story 
is  more  true  than  is  the  description.  This 
contrast  represents  the  biblical  trend.  The 
Book  penetrates  through  the  husk  to  the 
kernel,  through  superficial  facts  to  deepest 
truths,  through  passing  events  to  eternal 
meanings.    It  is  the  Book  of  Life. 

What  gives  the  Bible  this  appeal?  Whence 
did  it  secure  its  vital  quality?  The  only  reply 
is  that  the  appeal  to  life  must  be  born  of  life 
itself.  Sometimes  a  bizarre  explanation  is 
given  of  the  source  of  a  religious  volume,  the 
assumption  being  that  a  human  origin  denies 
a  divine  origin.  The  more  men  have  to  do  with 
its  production,  the  less  may  we  presume  that 
God  has  touched  the  work.  A  curious  illus- 
tration of  this  viewpoint  is  found  in  the  claim 
for  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  story  is  as 
follows:  A  heavenly  visitant  appeared  to 
Joseph  Smith  and  told  him  that  in  a  certain 
place  he  would  find  the  miracle  book.  Smith 
obeyed  the  directions  and  found  in  the  place 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  27 

named  a  box  of  stone.  In  this  box  was  a 
volume  half  a  foot  in  thickness.  It  was  writ- 
ten on  thin  plates  of  gold,  and  these  plates 
were  bound  together  by  gold  rings.  The  writ- 
ing was  in  a  strange  language,  but  wdth  the 
book  was  found  a  pair  of  miraculous  eye- 
glasses which  conferred  the  ability  to  read  the 
pages.  In  other  words  the  Book  of  Mormon 
was  not  born  of  human  life  under  the  guidance 
of  the  divine  life.  It  was  the  product  of  a 
straight  miracle,  and  the  power  to  decipher 
its  meaning  came  only  by  miracle.  Such  a 
theory  of  the  origin  is  easy  to  understand, 
even  though  it  may  be  difficult  to  believe.  It 
represents  the  extreme  form  of  that  faith 
which  minimizes  the  partnership  of  man  with 
God  in  the  making  of  all  genuine  gospels  of 
life. 

The  incarnation  was  Man  and  God  together. 
The  church  is  being  fashioned  by  man  and 
God  together;  the  Spirit  and  the  Bride  are 
colleagues.  Worship  is  possible  only  when 
man  and  God  are  together  in  fellowship.  If 
the  Bible  came  by  any  method  other  than  the 
coworking  of  man  and  God,  its  production 
would  stand  for  a  departure  from  the  usual 
divine  method.  The  power  of  the  Bible,  how- 
ever, grows  out  of  the  fact  that  it  is  not  an 
abnormal  book,  fantastically  given  to  men. 
There  is  a  humorous  story  of  an  old  woman 


28  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

who  was  discovered  in  diligent  study  of  the 
Hebrew  alphabet.  Asked  why  at  her  age  she 
was  beginning  to  learn  so  difficult  a  tongue, 
she  made  reply  that  when  she  died  she  desired 
to  address  the  Almighty  in  his  own  language ! 
There  have  been  theories  of  the  Bible  that 
are  scarcely  caricatured  by  this  tale.  If  there 
have  been  doctrines  of  the  Book  that  made  it 
the  product  of  a  lonely  man,  there  have  like- 
wise been  doctrines  that  made  it  the  product 
of  a  lonely  God.  Neither  doctrine  is  correct. 
The  Bible  grew  out  of  human  life  that  had 
been  touched  and  glorified  by  the  divine  pres- 
ence and  power.  Because  it  grew  out  of  life 
it  makes  its  appeal  to  its  native  element  in 
life  itself.     It  simply  claims  its  own. 

A  review  of  the  different  parts  of  the  Bible 
will  show  how  true  this  statement  is.  Practi- 
cally every  book  is  localized  and  personalized. 
Something  that  happened  among  men  called 
forth  the  writing.  The  names  of  the  books 
in  the  Pentateuch  show  this  fact.  Genesis 
treats  of  the  origins  of  the  earth  and  of  man, 
and  is  an  answer  to  the  inevitable  question 
that  springs  in  the  human  mind.  Exodus 
treats  of  the  going  forth  of  the  Hebrew  people 
from  their  Egyptian  bondage.  Leviticus  is  a 
description  and  discussion  of  the  Levitical 
rules.  Deuteronomy  is  a  second  giving  of  the 
Law  and  an  enlargement  of  its  sphere  as  well 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  29 

as  an  enforcement  of  its  precepts.  The  Ten 
Commandments  make  a  human  document  be- 
cause their  sole  aim  is  to  ennoble  and  protect 
human  life. 

It  is  so  with  the  historical  books.  They  are 
the  records  of  actual  human  living.  Their 
pages  are  sprinkled  mth  the  names  of  real 
men  and  women.  Joshua,  the  Judges,  Ruth, 
Samuel,  the  Kings  are  all  there,  eager  partic- 
ipants in  earth's  affairs  under  the  sense  of 
God.  These  books  are  not  theoretical  dis- 
sertations on  life  by  a  dreamer  in  his  closet; 
they  are  rather  the  general  descriptions  of 
life  itself  as  it  moved  along  a  period  of  seven 
or  eight  centuries.  They  give  us  the  salient 
and  meaningful  happenings  among  God's 
chosen  people.  They  tell  the  story  of  a  crude 
race  as  it  is  being  led  forward  to  the  heights. 
The  pages  record  limitations  and  faults  simply 
because  they  tell  us  of  actual  life.  The  sins 
of  the  Bible's  premier  heroes  are  ^sTitten  down 
mth  entire  frankness.  The  human  touch  is 
everywhere.  We  shall  not  read  the  historical 
books  long  ere  we  find  that  they,  too,  are 
human  documents.  But  these  human  docu- 
ments, covered  with  the  names  of  men  and 
women,  are  likewise  covered  with  the  ever- 
recurring  name  of  Jehovah.  In  the  record 
one  discovers  man  and  God. 

In  the  prophetical  books  the  like  fact  is 


30  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

apparent.  The  prophets  were  men  of  flesh  and 
blood.  They  rushed  into  the  prophetic  work 
from  the  ordinary  occupations  of  ancient  life. 
From  the  fields  they  came,  and  from  the  vine- 
yards. Perhaps  one  came  from  a  royal  palace. 
Surely  not  more  than  one  of  them  came  from 
the  altar  of  the  priesthood.  They  were  men 
who  knew  the  shame  and  glory  of  contem- 
porary life.  They  did  not  hesitate  to  touch 
the  politics  of  their  day.  They  decried  kings. 
They  denounced  landlords.  They  made 
frontal  attacks  on  all  forms  of  wickedness. 
Their  appeal  was  for  reality.  They  declared 
that  God  hated  all  pretense.  New  moons  and 
feasts  and  fasts  that  did  not  grow  out  of 
devout  hearts  they  declared  to  be  an  insult 
and  an  abomination  before  a  righteous  God. 
They  talked  from  life  to  life.  They  came  in 
response  to  some  human  demand  in  their 
times.  They  were  not  theorists,  discussing 
academic  problems  of  conduct.  They  were 
blazing  moral  realists.  We  do  not  need  to 
detail  the  list  of  those  forth  tellers  of  the  Word 
of  God.  Even  the  book  of  Jonah  is  full  of 
life.  Parable,  allegory,  history — its  descrip- 
tions are  based  in  life  and  its  appeal  is  to  life. 
In  its  moral  lesson  for  the  individual,  and  in 
its  missionary  lesson  for  a  narrow  race,  it 
offers  enough  duty  to  keep  life  busy  for  a 
million  years.    If  men  would  heed  its  lessons 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  31 

for  life  and  cease  their  petty  debates  about 
the  anatomy  of  whales,  the  Book  would  meet 
them  with  vital  urgings.  The  one  point  now 
is  that  the  prophetical  writings  grew  out  of 
life.  They  did  not  come  encased  in  stone 
boxes,  written  on  gold  leaves,  to  be  read  and 
understood  only  by  miraculous  spectacles. 
They  came  from  real  living,  and  they  claim 
their  own  wherever  real  men  are  living  to-day. 
We  need  not  follow  the  same  idea  into  the 
later  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  Prov- 
erbs were  gathered  from  the  streets  of  life. 
Ecclesiastes  is  the  pronouncement  of  life 
vainly  satiated.  Even  the  Psalms,  classed  as 
devotional  books,  were  usually  evoked  by  some 
actual  happening.  The  king  goes  out  to  war; 
a  psalm  is  penned.  The  ark  is  moved  from 
one  place  to  another;  a  psalm  is  written.  A 
man  is  jaded  and  discouraged;  a  psalm  is 
written  to  recover  him  to  a  consciousness  of 
the  care  of  Jehovah.  A  monarch  falls  into 
grievous  sin ;  a  psalm  is  written  to  express  his 
penitence.  A  study  of  any  Commentary  on 
the  Psalms  will  show  us  that  nearly  all  of 
these  devotional  utterances  were  prompted  by 
some  human  experiences.  They  are  the  shout- 
ings and  sobbings  of  living  men.  The  book  of 
Psalms  is  not  the  liturgy  of  academicians.  Its 
processionals  and  its  recessionals  show  actual 
men  and  women  in  the  real  march  of  life. 


32  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

In  the  New  Testament  this  same  law  of 
life  rules.  Jesus  comes  before  the  Gospels. 
Without  the  Life  there  could  not  have  been 
the  record  of  the  Life.  In  any  worthy  Bible 
life  must  always  come  first.  This  phase  will 
be  treated  later.  Now  it  must  be  emphasized 
that  the  entire  New  Testament  sprang  from 
a  Life  that  was  lived  among  men.  The  Word 
must  become  flesh  before  it  could  become 
literary  record.  Grace  and  truth  walked  the 
earth  ere  they  were  traced  on  pages.  Here 
again  the  Bible  comes  from  life  in  order  that 
it  may  return  to  life  again. 

The  statement  concerning  the  New  Testa- 
ment will  admit  of  more  detail.  The  Gospels 
grew  immediately  out  of  the  disciples'  life 
with  the  Lord.  The  Acts  grew  out  of  the  life 
of  the  disciples  in  their  daily  contact  with 
that  ancient  world.  The  Epistles  all  came 
from  some  urgency  of  life.  While  there  were 
minor  reasons  for  writing  each  of  them  there 
was  still  a  main  purpose  that  dictated  the 
writing  in  every  case.  The  Epistles  to  the 
Thessalonians  seek  to  produce  a  right  attitude 
toward  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  return.  The 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  a  discussion  of  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  and  the  rela- 
tions of  that  doctrine  to  Judaism.  That  to  the 
Galatians  is  both  a  personal  defense  of  Paul's 
questioned  apostleship  and  a  declaration  of 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  33 

freedom  from  bondage  to  the  law.  The  Philip- 
pians  grew  out  of  an  experience  of  human 
kindness,  being  an  expression  of  gratitude  for 
help  in  trouble  and  sympathy  in  sorrow.  The 
Ephesians  is  a  composite  of  moods — the  vic- 
tories of  grace,  the  hope  of  the  heavenlies,  the 
expectation  of  ascension  with  the  glorified 
Christ,  the  nature  and  aim  of  the  true  church. 
Colossians  expresses  the  universal  Lordship  of 
Christ  and  tears  down  every  theory  that  denies 
the  reality  of  the  incarnation  and  the  utter 
preeminence  of  Jesus. 

Even  those  Epistles  that  are  personal  in 
their  character  deal  with  universal  life. 
Philemon  reappeared  in  the  contests  concern- 
ing slavery  both  in  England  and  America  and 
scattered  the  arguments  of  Christian  democ- 
racy. The  bondage  of  men  could  not  well  live 
with  the  tender  brotherhood  that  breathes  in 
the  letter  which  Onesimus  carried  back  with 
him  to  his  former  master.  Titus  and  Timothy 
are  the  pastoral  advices  sent  by  the  aged 
apostle  to  his  younger  sons  in  the  faith,  while 
one  of  the  Epistles  is  the  hopeful  farewell  to 
earth  and  a  glad  trust  toward  the  Eternal 
City.  Revelation  may  be  filled  with  strange 
imagery  and  may  be  shaken  by  the  tremors  of 
a  perilous  age;  but  men  who  know  real  life 
wijl  say  that  the  Beast  and  the  Lamb  are  not 
merely  wild  figures  of  speech.    The  writer  of 


34  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

the  Apocalypse  knew  the  world,  and  he  knew 
the  churches  in  its  various  cities. 

Thus  it  seems  literally  true  that  all  the 
New  Testament  was  penned  for  the  aid  of 
life.  When  life  went  wrong,  warning  came. 
When  life  went  aright,  encouragement  came. 
When  life  was  mistaken,  correction  came. 
Whether  the  need  was  for  doctrine,  for  re- 
proof, or  for  instruction  in  righteousness,  God 
met  the  need  by  the  message  that  he  gave  to 
his  servants.  The  Book  is  not  a  series  of  in- 
fallible abstractions ;  it  is  rather  a  vital  Guide 
Book  won  from  the  experience  of  life's  ways. 
The  Bible  is  not  a  ready-made  product  dropped 
down  from  heaven;  it  is  rather  a  Library 
made  by  men  in  many  ages  in  partnership 
with  the  God  who  lives  with  men  in  all  ages. 
In  the  best  and  truest  fashion  it  makes  record 
of  the  life  of  God  in  the  souls  of  responsive 
men.  Because  it  came  from  life  it  inevitably 
seeks  life.  It  was  born  of  God  among  men. 
Therefore,  it  lives  among  men  with  God. 

We  may  carry  the  relation  of  life  to  the 
Bible  quite  beyond  this  point.  The  Bible  not 
only  grew  from  life,  but  it  came  back  to  life 
for  its  testing.  Even  as  there  have  been 
theories  of  the  making  of  the  Book  that  ignored 
the  element  of  human  living,  so  have  there 
been  theories  of  the  canon  of  Scripture  that 
ignored  the  element  of  human  testing.    Years 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  35 

ago  a  renowned  teacher  said  to  his  pupils, 
"Never  go  deliberately  to  work  to  make  a 
book.  The  only  volumes  worth  while  are  those 
that  grow  out  of  your  deepest  life."  The 
advice  was  good.  In  a  way  it  suggests  the 
manner  of  the  Bible's  making.  There  is  no 
evidence  whatsoever  that  any  writer  of  its 
pages  ever  thought  that  his  work  would  be- 
come part  of  a  Bible.  No  man  ever  said,  "I 
will  now  write  a  book  of  the  Holy  Scripture." 
Nor  did  any  group  of  men  assign  departments 
to  each  other,  saying,  "We  will  prepare  a 
divine  Book."  The  Bible  came  in  no  such 
mechanical  way.  Written  because  of  life's 
needs,  as  seen  in  the  light  of  God,  it  was 
tested  and  collected  by  life's  needs,  as  seen 
in  that  same  light.  It  was  once  strikingly 
said  that  the  words  of  Jesus  were  vascular; 
if  you  cut  them  they  would  bleed.  One 
shrinks  from  the  metaphor.  Yet  it  presents 
a  truth  about  the  whole  Bible.  A  Book 
written  by  life  and  selected  by  life  has  natu- 
rally a  message  for  life. 

How  did  the  books  of  the  Bible  secure  their 
place  in  the  canon?  The  romancer  offers  his 
tradition  here  again.  We  find  a  very  fantastic 
legend  coming  down  from  medieval  times  to 
this  effect :  In  the  church  at  Nicaea  one  day  a 
great  mass  of  religious  writing  lay  in  an  in- 
discriminate   heap    beneath    the    altar.      A 


36  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

miracle  gave  an  answer  to  the  question  as  to 
what  books  should  secure  permanent  places 
in  the  Holy  Book.  The  First  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference was  in  session.  The  year  was  325  A.  D. 
While  man  wondered  and  questioned,  God 
settled  the  issue.  Suddenly  the  genuine 
books  were  lifted  from  the  mass  of  volumes 
and,  without  visible  power,  lay  on  the  sacred 
table.  The  writings  miraculously  declared 
uncanonical  remained  beneath  the  altar.  This 
theory  of  selection  corresponds  to  the  theory 
of  dictation.  We  have  in  both  cases  an  active 
God  and  a  passive  man.  While  it  would  be 
unfair  to  say  that  this  medieval  legend  has 
any  modern  following,  it  is  true  that  certain 
theories  of  the  selection  of  the  canon  resemble 
it  in  that  they  discount  the  human  factor. 
Even  as  God  and  men  worked  together  in  the 
writing  of  the  books,  so  God  and  men  worked 
together  in  the  binding  of  the  books  into  their 
volume  of  fellowship.  Life  that  confessed  God 
and  tried  to  do  his  will  chose  the  books  and 
decreed  that  they  should  dwell  in  unity. 

As  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  overstate 
the  miracle  feature  in  the  selection  of  the 
canon,  so  has  there  been  a  tendency  to  over- 
state the  part  played  by  the  authoritative 
councils  of  the  church.  The  assumption  has 
been  that  arbitrariness  was  the  chief  feature 
of  the  whole  process.     Certain  men  met  in 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  37 

conference,  debated  the  merits  of  the  several 
books,  and  finally  settled  by  vote  what  par- 
ticular writings  should  have  their  place  in 
the  Bible  of  the  church.  Now  while  some- 
thing of  this  kind  did  occur,  it  is  far  from 
the  truth  to  affirm  that  the  councils  lacked  a 
representative  capacity.  The  vote  may  have 
been  recorded  by  theologians,  but  the  vote  had 
previously  been  determined  by  the  Christian 
democracy.  Abraham  Lincoln  wrote  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation.  His  predeces- 
sors were  the  people.  In  a  dignified  sense 
Lincoln  was  their  clerk,  expressing  their  will 
after  many  years  of  agitation.  The  wisdom 
of  the  Great  Commoner  was  shown  not  only 
by  the  personal  conviction  that  he  put  into 
the  document,  but  also  by  his  keen  apprecia- 
tion of  the  T\dll  of  the  multitude.  Though  the 
parchment  of  liberty  was  proclaimed  by  one 
man,  it  is  a  fact  that  it  was  dictated  by  many 
men.  Something  parallel  to  this  occurred  in 
the  selection  of  the  material  of  the  Bible. 
Councils  played  their  part;  their  part,  how- 
ever, was  the  part  of  agents. 

This  was  true  of  the  Old  Testament.  Many 
persons  may  still  have  the  vision  of  Jewish 
officials  with  long  robes  and  sober  faces  de- 
ciding the  ancient  canon.  Indeed,  there  was 
for  long  a  tradition  that  Ezra  founded  a  kind 
of  Imperial  Synagogue  which  continued  for 


38  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

not  less  than  two  hundred  years  and  which  in 
that  period  finished  the  collection  and  author- 
ization of  the  Old  Testament.  This  synagogue 
had  various  presidents,  including  Nehemiah. 
No  such  organization  for  the  selection  of  the 
Scriptures  existed.  Accurate  ancient  history 
gives  no  trace  of  its  work.  The  work  of  test- 
ing the  writings  was  slow.  The  arbiter  was 
life.  Life  had  determined  the  writing.  Life 
must  now  determine  the  authority. 

We  can  catch  an  interesting  glimpse  into 
this  process  by  studying  for  a  moment  the 
story  about  Josiah,  the  young  king.  Hilkiah, 
the  priest,  finds  the  book  of  the  law.  Shaphan 
carries  the  book  to  the  king  and  reads  to  him 
from  the  ancient  lore.  The  book  quickens 
the  royal  conscience.  God  and  the  earthly 
ancestors  of  Josiah  speak  to  him  from  the 
pages.  He  is  made  to  feel  how  far  he  and  his 
people  have  gone  from  the  will  of  Jehovah. 
He  rends  his  clothes.  He  sends  for  the  human 
voices  of  the  Most  High.  Huldah,  the 
prophetess,  is  the  chief  instructor.  The 
people  are  called  back  to  their  allegiance.  The 
land  is  purged.  A  manuscript  has  done  all 
this.  It  inspired  the  king  and  his  people  until 
abominations  fled  from  Israel.  The  land  con- 
tinued in  obedience  until  the  archers  sent 
King  Josiah  to  his  sepulcher.  That  portion 
of  the  law  that  had  been  read  to  the  king  by 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  39 

Shaphan  and  had  then  been  delivered  to  the 
people  proved  its  inspiring  quality  in  its  effects 
on  life.  On  that  day  a  portion  of  the  Old 
Testament  canon  was  selected. 

Doubtless  this  incident  is  somewhat  typical 
of  a  procedure  that  was  more  or  less  constant. 
The  imperial  synagogue  was  the  Jewish  people. 
The  debate  that  settled  issues  was  the  debate 
of  experience.  Life  was  electing  its  own  books. 
Words  that  touched  the  conscience  into  an 
impression  of  God  and  then  worked  their  way 
outward  to  the  blessing  of  the  multitude  were 
gaining  for  themselves  the  popular  vote. 
Candidates  for  the  canon  were  rejected. 
Other  candidates  were  held  in  long  suspicion. 
Ecclesiastes,  Proverbs,  Esther,  Solomon's 
Song — all  these  served  a  long  probation  ere 
they  proved  themselves  worthy  of  their  place. 
The  ancient  world,  like  the  modern  world, 
was  not  willing  to  surrender  Proverbs,  ^^ith 
their  homely  wisdom;  Esther,  with  its  lesson 
of  loyalty  to  race  and  kindred;  Solomon's 
Song,  with  its  refusal  to  listen  to  the  bland- 
ishments of  royal  lasciviousness  luring  to  the 
betrayal  of  a  true  and  humble  lover;  or  even 
Ecclesiastes,  with  its  pessimism  uncured  until 
the  writer  once  more  finds  God. 

After  books  secured  their  place  in  the 
authorized  list  of  the  Jews,  they  had  still  to 
contest  to  keep  their  place.     As  late  as  the 


40  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  debate  was 
frequent.  Life  was  slow  to  render  its  decision. 
There  was  no  hasty  authority.  The  final 
judgment  was  rendered  by  the  experience  of 
a  race.  When  Eck  reminded  Martin  Luther 
that  the  church  had  decided  what  books 
should  go  into  the  canon  and  that  Luther 
must  accept  a  quotation  from  Second  Mac- 
cabees as  authoritative,  the  great  Reformer 
made  reply,  *The  church  cannot  give  more 
authority  or  force  to  a  book  than  it  has  in 
itself.  A  council  cannot  make  that  be  Scrip- 
ture which  in  its  own  nature  is  not  Scrip- 
ture." So  it  came  to  pass  that  in  due  season 
the  freed  religious  consciousness  of  the  church 
took  certain  apocryphal  books  from  the  Old 
Testament  canon.  That  consciousness  seemed 
to  feel  a  difference  in  spiritual  power  between 
the  Apocrypha  and  the  other  portions  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Life  was  still  coming  to  the 
polls  in  order  that  it,  far  more  than  any  stately 
council,  should  elect  the  true  Word  of  God. 

This  same  process  of  selection  went  on  in 
relation  to  the  New  Testament.  The  early 
Christians  started  with  no  New  Testament 
whatsoever.  Their  Bible  was  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. We  do  not  find  any  warrant  for  saying 
that  they  expected  to  make  additions  to  the 
Bible.  Jesus  came  first.  Then  the  Gospels 
and  Epistles  came  as  natural  consequences. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  41 

The  early  Christians,  as  we  shall  later  see, 
had  received  the  very  purpose  and  climax  of 
Revelation,  because  they  had  received  Christ. 
But  the  Gospels  i.  id  Epistles  which  grew  up 
out  of  life  had  in  their  turn  to  be  tested  by  life. 
Believers  began  by  reading  these  as  if  they 
were  suggestive;  after  the  ^Titings  had 
wrought  their  full  impression  upon  the  minds 
of  the  believers,  they  began  to  consider  them 
inspired  and  holy.  This  decision  did  not  come 
abstractly,  nor  did  it  come  quickly.  Gradu- 
ally the  sense  of  the  value  of  certain  writings 
grew  upon  the  early  church.  Almost  two 
centuries  of  the  Christian  era  passed  ere  the 
collection  so  commended  itself  to  believing 
hearts  as  to  be  given  definite  form.  As  in  the 
case  of  the  Old  Testament,  so  in  the  case  of 
the  New,  life  declined  to  be  hurried  into  a 
decision.  The  books  must  prove  their  author- 
ity in  the  experience  of  the  people.  The 
Christian  republic  was  engaged  in  the  task  of 
choosing  its  Bible  from  life. 

We  find,  too,  that  certain  books  appeared  as 
claimants  for  permanent  authority  that  did 
not  win  their  case.  The  ancient  manuscripts 
were  passed  from  church  to  church  and  were 
read  to  the  people.  The  task  of  sifting  went 
surely  forward.  Directly  lists  of  books  that 
peculiarly  commended  themselves  to  the 
Christians  began  to  appear.    In  the  first  two 


42  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

centuries  such  leaders  as  Iren^eus,  Clement, 
and  Tertullian  present  their  lists  which  show 
some  of  our  present  books  omitted,  some  other 
books  included,  and  still  other  books  declared 
as  good  but  inferior.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness had  not  yet  reached  a  confident 
verdict.  But  a  review  of  the  period  shows  the 
Christian  leaders  verging  toward  unanimity. 
Slowly  some  books  were  eliminated;  and 
slowly  other  books  asserted  their  right  to  be 
included.  By  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury the  canon  had  been  practically  deter- 
mined. The  great  Augustine,  with  his  im- 
mediate predecessors  and  his  close  successors, 
reveals  the  well-nigh  unanimous  conclusion  to 
which  the  church  had  come.  It  may  well  be 
noted  that  the  voting  booth  stood  open  for 
almost  four  hundred  years.  The  Councils  of 
Hippo  and  Carthage  were  simply  the  servants 
of  the  people.  The  books  that  had  sprung 
from  life  had  received  the  testing  of  life. 

It  must  be  allowed  that  here,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Old  Testament  canon,  some  books  had 
to  re-prove  their  right  to  the  place  of  authority. 
The  Council  of  Trent  may  have  settled  the 
matter  for  all  Roman  Catholics,  but  it  did 
not  irretrievably  close  the  canon  for  Prot- 
estants. It  is  well  known  that  Luther  himself 
wished  to  remove  several  books  from  the  list, 
and   that   he   called   the   Epistle   of   James 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  43 

"strawlike."  Luther's  reason  was  a  polemical 
one.  He  felt  that  the  vivid  practicalness  of 
James  conflicted  with  the  principle  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone.  It  is  only  a  stronger 
evidence  of  the  demands  of  life  in  the  selection 
of  the  final  canon  that  even  the  powerful  in- 
fluence of  Luther  could  not  prevail.  The 
church  well  knew  that  the  Epistle  of  James 
would  be  a  good  antidote  for  any  lazy  mysti- 
cism. Life  voted  against  Luther  in  this 
instance,  and  life  won.  Zwingli  wanted  to 
exclude  the  Book  of  Revelation  from  the 
canon.  The  Christian  republic  felt  that  be- 
neath all  the  weird  imagery  of  the  Apocalypse 
God  was  speaking  by  his  servant  to  the 
churches  of  all  time.  Life  voted  against 
Zwingli  in  this  instance,  and  life  won.  When 
life  was  given  its  freedom  the  most  influential 
voices  of  authority  could  not  prevail  against 
its  verdicts.  This  completes  the  circle.  The 
Bible  was  written  by  life,  and  the  Bible  was 
selected  by  life. 

Perhaps  it  is  well  to  note  that  when  any 
portion  of  the  Scripture  has  been  taken  away 
from  the  purpose  of  life,  it  has  lost  its  note 
of  authority;  when  it  has  been  brought  back 
to  that  purpose  of  life,  it  has  regained  that 
note.  The  Song  of  Solomon  illustrates  this 
point.  It  had  slight  hold  on  the  life  of  the 
world  as  long  as  it  was  used  as  a  complex 


44  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

allegory  or  symbol  relating  to  Christ  and  the 
church.  All  labored  attempts  to  so  construe 
the  book  did  the  book  itself  injury.  But  when 
the  Song  was  permitted  to  recover  its  own 
relation  to  life,  it  recovered  its  own  power. 
The  lesson  of  the  book,  rightly  used,  may  save 
many  young  women  from  selling  themselves 
to  lascivious  luxury  and  may  give  them 
strength  against  tempting  allurements  away 
from  loyal  love.  However  old  the  world  may 
become,  it  will  always  need  that  lesson.  In 
some  way  the  Song  came  from  life;  and  when 
it  is  tested  by  life,  it  regains  its  relation  to 
life.  Released  from  the  strain  of  an  allegorical 
interpretation,  it  proves  itself  a  servant  of 
one  of  life's  holiest  causes. 

We  come  now  to  the  primary  consideration. 
The  Bible  grew  from  life.  The  Bible  was 
tested  by  life.  The  Bible  climaxes  in  Life. 
Jesus  said  that  the  Scriptures  testified  of  him. 
It  is  even  so.  In  the  Sargent  pictures  in  the 
Boston  Public  Library  the  prophets  are  repre- 
sented as  pointing  forward  to  him.  We  may 
even  more  surely  represent  the  writers  of  the 
Gospels  and  Epistles  as  pointing  backward  to 
Mm.  The  Bible  is  to  be  judged  by  its  goal; 
and  the  goal  is  Christ.  Other  sacred  books, 
such  as  the  Koran,  were  written  by  one 
person;  the  Bible  was  written  by  many  per- 
sons for  one  Person.     Jesus  himself  insisted 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  45 

on  this.  He  claimed  to  surpass  the  old  revela- 
tions. With  all  his  reverence  for  the  Old 
Testament,  he  still  put  himself  above  it  by 
words  like  these :  '^Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath 
been  said  by  them  of  olden  time,  But  /  say 
unto  you."  This  is  as  much  as  to  aflflrm  that 
he  was  the  end  of  a  progressive  revelation. 
A  skeptic  once  said  that  the  whole  Bible  turns 
upon  Jesus.  The  skeptic  was  right.  One  of 
the  Gospels  gives  a  word  that  may  safely  be 
applied  to  the  whole  trend  of  the  Bible, 
^'These  things  are  written,  that  ye  might  be- 
lieve that  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  that 
believing  ye  might  have  life  through  his  name." 
The  very  purpose  is  declared  to  be  that  men 
may  be  brought  to  faith  in  Christ. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  all  revela- 
tion ceased  with  the  closing  of  the  canon. 
Lowell's  claim  that  the  Bible  of  the  race  is 
written  slowly,  that  each  race  adds  its  texts 
of  hope  and  despair,  of  joy  and  moan,  and 
that  the  prophets  still  sit  at  the  feet  of  God, 
cannot  be  denied.  But  we  may  confidently 
assert  that  revelation  came  to  its  culmination 
and  crown  in  Jesus  Christ.  When  once  the 
essential  things  concerning  him  had  found 
place  in  a  Book,  the  Bible  found  its  consum- 
mation. Thus  do  we  see  that  the  books  that 
were  written  by  life,  and  then  were  tested  by 
life,  came  to  their  climax  in  Life.     The  only 


46  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

way  to  secure  a  book  better  than  the  Bible  is 
to  secure  a  person  better  than  Jesus.  The 
best  men  entertain  no  such  vain  expectation 
because  they  know  that  nothing  can  be  more 
perfect  than  Perfection. 

We  have  set  forth  these  three  main  reasons 
for  the  unique  influence  that  the  Bible  exer- 
cises over  life.  Some  are  fond  of  saying  that 
the  Bible  is  merely  one  of  many  sacred  books. 
Those  who  have  read  the  bibles  of  other  races 
will  not  be  misled  by  the  statement.  Max 
Mtiller  writes  that  the  Sacred  Books  of  the 
East  "by  the  side  of  much  that  is  fresh, 
natural,  simple,  beautiful,  and  true,  contain 
much  that  is  not  only  unmeaning,  artificial, 
and  silly,  but  even  hideous  and  repellent." 
Of  the  Brahmanas  he  affirms  that  they 
"deserve  to  be  studied  as  the  physician 
studies  the  twaddle  of  idiots  and  the  ravings 
of  madmen."  The  Koran  sets  forth  a  very 
fine  morality,  but  it  was  written  by  one  man 
and  really  presents  a  legal  religion.  More- 
over it  offers  no  perfect  example.  The  author 
of  the  Koran  himself  claimed  to  receive  reve- 
lations that  opened  a  path  to  immorality.  One 
voice  declared  the  authority  of  the  book,  and 
an  obedient  people  accepted  this  verdict.  The 
Koran  was  not  written  by  a  wide  range  of 
life,  expressing  God's  dealing  with  many  per- 
sons under  diverse  conditions.     It  was  not 


THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE  A7 

tested  for  its  authority  by  the  free  conscience 
of  a  people.  Mohammed  wrote  and  adopted 
his  own  canon.  The  Christian's  Bible,  written 
by  life,  tested  by  life,  and  culminating  in  Life, 
has  come  back  to  life  with  transforming 
power. 

The  insistence  of  these  chapters  is  that, 
when  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  given  a  free 
opportunity  to  do  their  work  with  life,  they 
prove  their  own  inspiration.  After  all,  there 
can  be  no  other  proof.  The  Bible  is  what  it 
is,  no  matter  what  theory  men  may  adopt  as 
to  its  formation.  It  creates  its  own  evidences. 
The  argument  for  its  inspiration  is  the  life 
that  it  inspires.  If  the  Book  gives  power  and 
purity  to  all  departments  of  life,  the  Book 
defends  itself  against  attack  and  makes  its 
own  conquests.  Does  the  Bible  rightly  exalt 
man?  Does  it  sanctify  the  home?  Does  it 
promote  education?  Does  it  glorify  work? 
Does  it  save  wealth  from  greed,  pleasure  from 
excess,  sorrow  from  despair?  These  questions 
reach  the  center  of  the  problem. 

We  can  go  but  one  step  beyond  them,  and 
that  step  is  most  significant.  Do  we  find  in 
the  Bible  not  only  a  way  to  be  followed,  and  a 
goal  of  truth  to  be  gained,  but  a  Life  that  will 
help  lives  along  the  way  toward  the  goal? 
Does  the  Book  really  reveal  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life?    The  answer  must  again  be  found 


48  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

in  life.  The  evidences  of  dynamic  are  in  the 
realms  of  human  experience.  More  and  more 
the  students  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  who  seek 
the  pages  with  a  religious  purpose,  will  find 
that  all  the  departments  of  human  living  wait 
on  Jesus  for  their  meaning  and  come  to  him 
for  their  power.  He  is  the  Saviour.  He  lifts 
men  out  of  their  sins,  up  into  a  trembling  and 
glorious  idealism,  and  still  up  into  a  passion 
for  efficient  goodness.  The  supreme  apology 
for  the  Bible  will  ever  be  found  in  men  who 
have  been  so  instructed,  reproved,  and  cor- 
rected, that  they  may  be  named  as  perfect 
men  of  God,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  every 
good  work.  Given  its  full  right,  the  Book  that 
was  born  of  life,  tried  of  life,  glorified  of  Life, 
will  find  its  own  best  witnesses  in  redeemed 
lives. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Bible  and  Man 

The  natural  outline  of  a  human  life  which 
has  suggested  the  method  of  these  lectures 
represents  a  man  as  awaking  each  morning  to 
the  consciousness  of  himself.  Every  man  lives 
perforce  in  his  own  company.  He  walks  with 
himself  on  every  road  of  life.  He  sits  with 
himself  in  its  resting  places.  He  lies  down 
with  himself  in  its  slumbers.  He  is  his  own 
friend,  and  his  own  enemy.  Omar  Khayydm 
declares  that  he  is  his  own  heaven  and  his 
own  hell.  There  is  a  story  of  a  farmer  who 
said  that  when  he  climbed  to  the  roof  of  his 
barn  and  looked  about,  he  always  found  that 
he  himself  was  the  center  of  the  world.  The 
roof  of  the  sky  at  all  points  was  equally  dis- 
tant from  him;  the  walls  of  the  world  made 
by  the  dipping  horizon  showed  the  same 
length  of  radius  from  himself !  The  story  has 
its  serious,  as  well  as  its  amusing  side.  Every 
man  is  the  personal  center  of  a  world  which 
gets  its  meaning  from  his  own  heart.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  the  old  Greek  motto  was  "Know 
thyself.'^ 

49 


50  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Yet  the  knowledge  of  self  is  not  easy  knowl- 
edge. The  fact  that  no  man  has  ever  seen  his 
own  face,  save  by  reflection  in  some  mirror, 
is  a  parable.  The  very  eyes  that  see  cannot 
see  themselves.  They  are  so  near  that  they 
are  hidden.  The  moral  literature  of  the  race 
always  emphasizes  the  difficulty  of  self-reve- 
lation. Its  cry  is,  "Who  can  understand  his 
errors?  Cleanse  thou  me  from  secret  faults." 
It  has  a  yet  deeper  desire:  that  it  may  know 
more  of  its  own  essential  nature.  Each  man 
longs  for  a  revelation  of  God;  and  each  man 
longs  for  a  revelation  of  himself.  The  present 
emphasis  is  that  the  Bible  is  the  medium  of 
this  human  revelation. 

We  do  not  go  far  in  the  reading  of  its  pages 
without  discovering  that  the  word  "thou" 
looms  large  in  its  spiritual  grammar.  Those 
curious  persons  who  often  bring  their  arith- 
metic to  the  Bible  could  doubtless  tell  how 
many  times  "thou"  and  "thee"  and  "thy"  and 
"thine"  are  found  in  its  chapters.  In  the  Ten 
Commandments  and  in  the  New  Command- 
ment "thou"  is  the  recurring  word.  Personal 
address  is  prominent  everywhere.  Indeed,  the 
whole  Book  is  a  kind  of  prophet  coming  into 
the  court  of  each  soul  and  saying,  "Thou  art 
the  man."  Sometimes  the  approach  is  an  ac- 
cusation, sometimes  an  approbation;  in  any 
case  the  note  is  intensely  individual.    In  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  51 

New  Commandment  the  "self"  is  made  the 
standard  by  which  the  relation  to  the  neighbor 
is  to  be  tested.  The  implication  would  seem  to 
be  that  the  man  who  does  not  love  himself 
lacks  the  law  by  which  his  love  for  other  men 
may  be  made  efficient.  Polonius  was  not  far 
from  the  biblical  idea  when  he  said : 

To  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man. 

In  daily  parlance  it  is  often  said,  "Put  your- 
self in  his  place'' ;  but  the  value  of  that  trans- 
fer of  self  is  small  if  you  do  not  know  what 
the  self  is  after  you  give  it  the  new  place! 
The  revelation  of  self  is  likewise  the  revela- 
tion of  other  men.  We  know  our  neighbors 
only  as  we  know  ourselves. 

Presuming,  therefore,  that  we  send  a  man 
to  the  Scriptures  to  find  the  doctrine  of  his 
own  nature,  what  will  be  his  discovery?  The 
question  is  not  a  new  one,  and  its  answer  has 
sometimes  been  touched  by  prejudice.  Many 
have  contended  that  in  its  effort  to  magnify 
God,  the  Bible  is  guilty  of  belittling  man. 
Fragments  of  Scripture  might  be  presented  to 
support  this  criticism.  We  must,  however, 
insist  that  the  biblical  teaching  is  to  be  de- 
termined by  its  main  current  rather  than  by 
its  eddies.     The  Book  does  present  God  as 


52  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

high  and  lifted  up,  while  man  lies  with  his 
lips  in  the  dust.  It  does  make  God  a  King, 
while  it  proclaims  man  a  subject.  It  does 
stress  divine  sovereignty,  while  insisting  on 
human  obedience  and  reverence.  It  does  call 
for  humility  on  the  part  of  man.  We  may 
well  admit  that  it  is  possible  to  overdo  the 
call  to  humility.  That  good  mood  may  easily 
pass  over  into  a  false  mood.  Occasionally 
men,  in  an  effort  to  be  humble,  speak  untruth 
concerning  their  own  souls.  It  is  just  here 
that  the  "worm-of-the-dust"  theory  gets  its 
chance.  That  phrase  was  a  biblical  one,  used 
by  a  character  in  his  moment  of  self-abase- 
ment. Yet  the  Concordance  will  prove  that 
this  lowly  estimate  of  man  is  by  no  means  the 
staple  of  teaching,  as  well  as  that  much  of 
the  cheap  preaching  of  human  nature  is  a 
radical  departure  from  the  doctrine  of  the 
Book.  It  is  always  good  to  keep  clear  the 
distinction  between  vanity  and  self-respect,  so 
that  if  a  man  may  not  have  the  right  to  look 
down  on  his  neighbors  he  may  still  have  the 
right  to  look  up  to  himself.  Humility  must 
ever  be  based  on  truth,  and  self-respect  can 
have  no  other  foundation.  The  two  moods  are 
not  contradictory.  The  one  comes  from  the 
recognition  of  the  nature  of  God,  in  the  utter 
and  unspeakable  perfection  of  his:  attributes; 
the  other  comes  from  the  recognition  of  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  53 

nature  of  man  as  being  himself  a  partaker  of 
that  divine  nature.  In  reality  the  two  moods 
grow  out  of  the  same  truth. 

A  still  deeper  objection  is  sometimes  offered 
against  the  scriptural  theory  of  human  nature. 
It  is  charged  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall, 
together  with  the  constant  emphasis  of  man's 
"exceeding  sinfulness/'  deprives  man  of  special 
dignity.  Without  doubt  the  theory  of  the  Fall 
has  sometimes  been  presented  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  cancel  all  human  claims  to  great- 
ness. Whenever  a  religious  teacher  carries 
his  doctrine  of  the  Fall  to  unjust  lengths,  we 
must  all  be  tempted  to  declare  that  we  can 
readily  prove  an  alibi!  And  if  he  shall  em- 
ploy that  doctrine  as  a  vast  slur  on  humanity, 
we  shall  insist  that  the  length  of  the  fall  must 
be  the  length  of  the  possible  rise !  In  harmony 
with  this  idea  a  great  preacher  has  given  the 
world  a  sermon  on  "The  Dignity  of  Humanity 
as  Evidenced  by  its  Ruins.''  Much  of  the 
glory  of  the  Coliseum  at  Rome  has  departed, 
but  even  its  ruins  are  a  testimony  to  its  great- 
ness. Seeing  its  gaunt  grandeur  in  the  sun- 
light, or  viewing  its  impressive  shadows  in 
the  moonlight,  the  tourist  gets  the  shock  of 
its  glory.  The  simple  truth  is  that  a  doctrine 
of  the  Fall  is  possible  only  when  you  start 
with  human  greatness.  God  made  one  crea- 
ture  strong   enough   to   resist   Himself — one 


54  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

creature  with  sufficient  self-determination  to 
make  mutiny  in  the  world.  We  would  not 
torture  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall  into  a  mere 
compliment  for  humanity;  but  we  would  in- 
sist that  the  possibility  of  a  Fall  implies  a 
height  to  fall  from,  and  that  responsibility  for 
a  Fall  implies  a  nature  great  enough  and  free 
enough  to  make  far-reaching  choices.  The 
evidence  of  the  dignity  is  still  found  among 
the  ruins. 

We  must  always  supplement  any  doctrine 
of  the  Fall  with  a  doctrine  of  human  respon- 
sibility. The  Bible  is  most  explicit  in  this 
insistence.  Its  pages  are  crowded  with  the 
moral  imperative  for  man.  The  thorn  and  the 
brier  are  on  the  earth ;  but  they  are  not  blamed, 
because  they  wait  for  the  era  of  the  good 
people.  The  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth  together  in  pain;  but  the  creation 
is  not  blamed,  because  it  waits  for  the  reveal- 
ing of  the  sons  of  God.  The  lion  and  the  lamb 
do  not  lie  down  together;  but  they  are  not 
blamed,  because  they  wait  for  the  age  of  peace 
that  can  issue  only  from  the  hearts  of  men. 
The  coin  rolls  into  dust  and  shadow  and  is 
lost;  we  do  not  blame  the  coin.  The  sheep 
wanders  into  desert  and  darkness  and  is  lost ; 
we  do  not  blame  the  sheep.  The  son  goes  off 
into  the  swine  field  and  is  lost;  and  we  do 
blame  the  son.    The  coin  and  the  sheep  have 


THE   BIBLE  AND  MAN  55 

no  communings  with  self,  no  sense  of  guilt, 
no  road  of  repentant  return;  but  the  son  has 
all  these.  The  Bible  does  utter  its  vigorous 
charge  against  man^s  sin;  it  is  the  ever-open 
court  room  into  which  the  human  conscience 
is  summoned  for  judgment.  The  Book  does 
not  treat  man  as  a  machine  whose  cogs  and 
wheels  are  moved  only  by  outside  force;  nor 
does  it  treat  him  as  a  manikin,  jerked  hither 
and  yon  by  irresponsible  sensations ;  it  rather 
dignifies  him  with  personal  responsibility.  The 
Fall  does  not  prevent  climbing,  if  only  man 
will  take  advantage  of  those  gracious  powers 
that  are  offered  for  his  help.  Emerson  saw  the 
meaning  of  this  when  he  wrote  his  tribute  to 
mankind  based  on  its  ability  to  respond  to  the 
moral  order : 

So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust. 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  "Thou  must," 

The  youth  replies,  "I  can!" 

Words  like  "ought"  and  "should"  and  "must" 
have  gone  forth  from  the  Bible  and  have  fairly 
penetrated  the  moral  consciousness  of  the 
race.  No  other  book  so  honors  human  nature 
with  a  sublime  call  to  responsibility. 

We  now  leave  these  general  considerations 
and  take  up  the  several  portions  of  the  Scrip- 
tures with  a  view  to  ascertaining  their  con- 


56  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

tributions  to  a  doctrine  of  man.  The  founda- 
tion of  that  doctrine  is  seen  in  the  account 
of  the  creation.  Whether  that  account  be 
poem,  parable,  allegory,  or  history,  its  mean- 
ing for  this  special  point  is  the  same.  The 
climax  of  the  creation  is  man.  God  is  repre- 
sented as  changing  chaos  into  cosmos,  sepa- 
rating waters  and  land,  fixing  sun  and  moon 
in  their  places,  bringing  verdure  to  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  assigning  birds  and  beasts  and 
fishes  to  their  spheres,  and  then  as  giving  to 
man  a  wide  rulership.  "God  made  man  to 
have  dominion" — that  is  the  biblical  word; 
and  the  ages  have  been  telling  how  true  that 
word  is.  The  Bible  theory  and  the  facts  of 
life  join  in  a  coronation  of  man. 

The  account  of  the  creation  goes  deeper 
than  this  in  its  estimate  of  mankind.  Its  con- 
ferring of  power  on  man  is  explained  by  its 
conferring  a  nature  on  man.  Man  is  made  in 
the  divine  image.  The  Word  was  not  content 
with  one  statement  of  that  fact ;  it  must  needs 
give  it  double  emphasis.  "So  God  created  man 
in  his  own  image'' — that  would  seem  simple 
and  strong  enough.  But  the  statement  is 
strengthened  by  repetition,  "In  the  image  of 
God  created  he  him."  These  twice-repeated 
words  are  the  real  charter  of  man's  greatness. 
The  atheist  must  admit  that  man  has  the 
dominion,  but  the  believer  holds  that  man  has 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  57 

the  dominion  because  he  has  the  birthright. 
Man  is  not  only  God's  submonarch,  he  is  God's 
image. 

It  is  interesting  and  convincing  to  note  how 
soon  that  primary  truth  about  man's  nature 
began  to  work.  In  the  persecution  under 
Diocletian  the  precious  parchments  of  the 
Bible  had  been  secretly  carried  from  house  to 
house.  The  charge  that  a  Christian  had  given 
up  the  sacred  Book  in  order  to  save  himself 
from  death  was  one  of  the  most  serious  that 
could  be  presented.  Many  martyrdoms  oc- 
curred because  men  preferred  the  Bible  above 
their  own  lives.  Though  circulated  under 
such  difficulty,  and  though  made  into  read- 
able parchments  at  such  expense  of  labor  and 
money,  the  Bible  was  slowly  impressing^  its 
doctrine  of  man  upon  the  stubborn  period.  We 
are  often  smitten  with  horror  as  we  read 
stories  which  show  how  lightly  human  life  was 
regarded  by  the  Romans.  Those  dreadful 
scenes  in  the  arena,  where  thumbs  so  often 
declined  to  turn  down  as  a  sign  of  mercy,  are 
dire  mysteries  to  men  who  have  gotten  the 
biblical  standpoint.  We  are  distant  from  that 
heartless  mood  because  we  are  near  to  the 
Bible.  The  Book  and  the  gladiator  could  not 
live  together  in  peace.  The  Book  at  once 
began  to  call  men  from  the  tiers  of  bloody 
pleasure.  With  the  conversion  of  Constantine, 


58  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

superficial  as  it  may  have  been,  the  change 
began.  The  emperor  ordered  many  splendid 
copies  of  the  Bible  for  the  churches  of  his 
capital.  He  himself  came  under  the  spell 
of  its  human  doctrine.  Zealous  Christian 
teachers  may  sometimes  overstate  the  influence 
which  the  Bible  exercised  over  later  Roman 
law.  Still  there  are  some  undoubted  evidences 
of  that  influence.  Constantine  made  a  law 
forbidding  that  a  criminal  should  be  branded 
on  the  face,  and  he  gave  as  his  reason  for  the 
law  that  the  image  of  God  should  not  be 
marred!  This  leaves  us  in  no  doubt  as  to 
what  had  inspired  the  legislation.  It  was  the 
simple  beginning  of  a  program  that  has  not 
yet  come  to  its  consummation.  The  biblical 
idea  of  man  routed  one  form  of  slavery,  and 
it  will  yet  rout  all  other  forms.  When  men 
come  to  believe  that  man  is  made  in  the  divine 
image  all  good  movements  for  the  betterment 
of  life  are  set  in  the  way  to  victory. 

The  legal  portions  of  the  Bible  give  us  the 
like  lesson,  even  though  the  approach  to  the 
lesson  is  different.  Here  we  discover  that 
humanity  is  worthy  enough  to  call  for  con- 
servation and  protection.  The  legislation 
reaches  to  hygienic  and  sanitary  details  of 
minute  character.  The  whole  effort  is  to  build 
a  protecting  fence  about  men.  The  Ten  Com- 
mandments, studied  in  this  light,  become  a 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  59 

very  human  document.  Their  harsh  and  nega- 
tive quality  is  softened  into  gentleness.  They 
guard  the  goods  of  man — his  property,  his  wife 
and  children,  his  body,  his  good  name.  It 
would  be  possible  to  regard  the  Decalogue  as 
a  series  of  prohibitions  in  which  the  word 
"not"  occurs  with  forbidding  frequency.  In 
this  case  the  appropriate  accompaniment  is 
thunder  and  lightning,  and  the  appropriate 
scroll  for  the  writing  is  stone.  This  view- 
point is  one  sided  and  unfair.  The  Ten  Com- 
mandments are  prohibitions  only  because  they 
are  protections.  They  have  been  through  many 
ages  the  kindly  sentinels  of  society.  They 
have  taken  the  side  of  God,  of  his  dumb 
creatures,  and  of  men  and  women  and  little 
children.  Considered  in  any  just  way,  the 
legal  portions  of  the  Bible  are  a  tribute  not 
merely  to  divine  authority,  but  to  human 
worth. 

The  prophetical  books  add  their  lesson,  and 
from  a  still  different  angle.  They  are  filled 
with  protests  against  man's  conduct,  with 
wrath  against  his  insincerities,  and  with  pre- 
dictions of  his  coming  woe.  The  mouths  of 
the  prophets  were  not  filled  with  compliments. 
Those  stern  men  were  not  the  flatterers  of 
their  own  generations.  Their  sayings  could 
be  so  elected  as  to  make  a  degrading  estimate 
of  men.    But  here  again  we  must  get  the  full 


60  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

meaning  of  the  message.  In  their  last  analysis 
the  prophecies  are  a  marked  tribute  to  poten- 
tial man.  Beyond  the  disturbed  present  they 
see  the  peaceful  future.  Beyond  the  clash  of 
swords  and  the  swish  of  spears  they  see  the 
mild  and  productive  era  of  the  plowshare  and 
the  pruning  hook.  Beyond  the  unreal  altars 
they  see  the  incense  of  true  worship  arising 
to  God.  The  prophets  were,  in  the  best  sense, 
optimists,  and  they  were  optimists  because 
they  believed  that  all  men  would  some  day 
yield  to  the  Lord.  They  beheld  the  whole 
earth  filled  with  righteousness.  They  saw  the 
stone  cut  loose  from  the  mountain  and  filling 
the  wide  world.  The  healing  river  was  to 
flow  to  all  peoples.  Jerusalem  was  to  be  the 
universal  joy.  The  day  would  dawn  when  it 
would  be  unnecessary  to  say  to  any  man, 
"Know  thou  the  Lord."  The  most  dismal  of 
the  prophets  foretold  the  perfect  day.  But 
all  this  means  that  the  prophets  foretold  the 
perfect  man  and  the  perfect  race.  To  pro- 
claim that  humanity,  under  the  guidance  of 
God,  is  so  capable  is  to  dignify  human  life 
beyond  measure. 

Nor  are  we  lacking  among  the  prophets  an 
individual  example  of  the  power  of  self- 
respect.  Nehemiah  may  not  be  the  premier 
among  his  fellows,  but  he  talks  with  a  royal 
self-consciousness.     When   messengers   come, 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  61 

desiring  that  he  shall  go  down  into  the  plain 
for  a  parley  with  Sanballat,  he  declines  by 
saying,  "I  am  doing  a  great  work,  so  that  I 
cannot  come  down.''  Again  he  is  told  that  the 
enemy  is  coming,  and  he  is  counseled  to  go 
into  the  temple  and  cling  to  the  altar  for 
protection.  Once  more  self-respect  comes  to 
the  rescue;  the  reply  is,  "Should  such  a  man 
as  I  flee?  and  who  is  there,  that,  being  as  I 
am,  would  go  into  the  temple  to  save  his  life? 
I  will  not  go  in."  Here  the  potential  man, 
foretold  by  the  prophet,  was  the  actual  man. 
He  had  reached  such  a  high  doctrine  of  his 
own  nature  that  the  doctrine  itself  became  the 
prevention  of  triviality  and  of  cowardice.  The 
rebuilded  walls  of  Jerusalem  arose  from  that 
spirit.  Those  walls  were  likewise  an  expres- 
sion of  the  prophet's  faith  in  the  future  of  his 
people.  The  prophetic  confidence  in  man  was 
second  only  to  the  prophetic  confidence  in 
God.  This  form  of  tribute  to  humanity  is 
preeminent  in  the  books  of  the  prophets. 

In  the  devotional  part  of  the  Bible  we  should 
not  naturally  expect  that  tribute  would  turn 
manward.  The  tendency  is  seen  in  those  sec- 
tions of  prophecy  where  the  prophet  himself 
has  close  dealings  with  God.  When  the 
greatest  of  the  prophets  sees  the  ineffable  One 
and  hears  the  awful  trisagion  of  the  seraphim, 
the  prime  confession  is  that  his  own  lips  are 


62  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

unclean  and  that  he  dwells  in  the  midst  of  a 
people  of  unclean  lips.  Inasmuch  as  the 
Psalms  are  in  large  measure  a  liturgy  of  wor- 
ship, their  emphasis  is  on  the  greatness  of 
Jehovah.  Yet  sometimes  the  emphasis  turns 
toward  man.  The  most  striking  illustration 
occurs  in  the  eighth  psalm.  The  writer  there 
utters  the  feeling  that  we  have  all  shared. 
The  limitless  expanse  of  the  heavens,  the 
shining  of  moon  and  stars  in  the  far  heights, 
the  workmanship  of  the  Lord  in  the  vast  uni- 
verse— all  this  makes  the  psalmist  feel  that  he 
is  a  mere  speck  in  the  scheme.  Tried  by  those 
celestial  measurements,  he  drops  into  insig- 
nificance. He  is  rescued  from  self -contempt 
only  by  a  return  to  the  message  of  Genesis. 
His  despairing  cry  issues  in  a  shout  of  per- 
sonal triumph.  "When  I  consider  thy 
heavens,  the  work  of  thy  fingers,  the  moon  and 
the  stars,  which  thou  hast  ordained;  What  is 
man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him?  and  the 
son  of  man,  that  thou  visitest  him?"  If 
materialism  should  conquer  the  Bible  there  is 
but  one  answer.  The  psalmist  is  saved  by  the 
Scripture,  "Thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower 
than  God,  and  hast  crowned  him  with  glory 
and  honor.''  It  is  no  marvel  that  the  first 
translators  lowered  the  tribute  and  substituted 
"the  angels"  for  God.  The  reverence  that  so 
often  used  a  sign  for  the  divine  name  trembled 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  63 

on  the  verge  of  such  a  human  tribute.  Still 
that  tribute  was  a  return  to  the  doctrine  that 
God  had  made  man  in  his  own  image  and  had 
given  him  dominion  over  the  works  of  his 
hand.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  Psalms  are 
girded  with  the  consciousness  that  man  can 
enter  into  the  august  presence  of  the  Lord. 
The  mutual  element  in  worship  is  an  exalta- 
tion of  man.  The  greatness  of  Jacob  is  greater 
when  he  meets  with  the  heavenly  visitant  by 
the  Jabbok  brook.  He.  becomes  a  prince.  In 
the  devotional  books  man  claims  his  princely 
heritage.  He  treads  the  courts  of  the  infinite 
King. 

Moving  forward  into  the  New  Testament, 
we  find  that  the  doctrine  of  man  gathers  more 
impressiveness.  Jesus  never  cast  any  doubt 
upon  the  supreme  place  of  man  in  the  program 
of  God.  He  put  his  harshest  blame  upon  those 
who  wickedly  misled  the  children  of  the 
Father.  He  himself  was  chided  because  he 
sought  the  lowliest  and  the  worst  among  men 
and  women.  He  ate  with  the  publican  and 
gave  his  choicest  lesson  to  the  harlot.  He  was 
willing  to  exchange  his  social  reputation  for 
the  privilege  of  associating  with  the  humblest 
people.  For  a  woman  with  a  dark  past  he 
delocalized  worship.  From  another  he  ac- 
cepted the  offering  of  grateful  tears  and  put 
her  conduct  in  contrast  with  that  of  the  lordly 


64  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Pharisee.  He  was  the  Prophet  for  the  soul  as 
such.  He  was  the  Priest  who  mediated  gladly 
between  the  least  one  and  the  greatest  One. 
We  search  his  words  in  vain  for  anything  that 
put  contempt  on  man  as  man. 

When  he  compared  men  to  the  rest  of  crea- 
tion it  was  always  to  human  advantage.  He 
told  of  the  care  of  the  shepherd  for  the  sheep, 
and  then  he  asked,  "How  much  is  a  man  better 
than  a  sheep?"  He  declared  that  God  noted 
the  fall  of  sparrows,  though  th^y  brought 
small  price  in  the  market  place,  and  then, 
speaking  to  ordinary  men  and  women,  nearly 
all  of  them  ignorant  and  more  than  half  of 
them  slaves,  he  said,  "Are  ye  not  much  better 
than  they?"  Nor  were  these  sayings  really 
interrogative;  they  were  exclamatory.  Jesus 
knew  that  every  normal  man  would  feel  the 
answer  in  his  own  soul.  The  worth  of  man 
was,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  beyond  debate. 

He  moved,  also,  from  inanimate  things  to 
the  assertion  of  man's  worth.  The  lilies  and 
grasses  were  in  the  care  of  God  and  waited  on 
him  for  their  vesture.  "Will  he  not  much 
more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith?"  He 
made  the  worth  of  man  the  warrant  of  the 
care  of  God.  At  last  he  put  man  on  one  side 
of  the  scale  and  the  whole  world  on  the  other 
side,  and  he  affirmed  that  man  outweighed  the 
world.     Men  may  barter  themselves  for  half 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  65 

a  township;  but  Jesus  declared  that  it  would 
be  a  disastrous  bargain,  if  a  man  should  accept 
the  world  in  exchange  for  himself.  "What 
shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  the  world  and 
lose  himself?  Or  what  will  a  man  give  in 
exchange  for  himself?"  This  is  the  final 
answer  to  any  paltry  teaching  about  the  worth 
of  man. 

When  choice  had  to  be  made  between  man's 
interests  and  sacred  laws  and  ordinances, 
Jesus  gave  preference  to  man.  The  shewbread 
was  consecrated,  but  he  approved  the  taking 
of  it  to  satisfy  human  hunger.  The  Sabbath 
day  was  holy,  but  the  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath;  so  the 
plucked  ears  of  corn  were  a  testimonial  to 
men. 

The  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  childhood  is 
tender  evidence  of  his  thought  of  humanity. 
The  child  has  not  yet  won  any  achievement, 
save  the  loving  assertion  of  its  own  depend- 
ency. The  child  in  the  midst  represented 
humanity  in  its  freshest  and  most  natural 
form.  It  is  said  that  some  ancient  religion- 
ists were  accustomed  to  debate  whether  or  not 
a  child  had  a  soul.  Jesus  would  have  scorned 
such  a  debate.  He  made  the  child  the  model 
of  the  kingdom.  Human  life  unspoiled  was 
lifted  up  as  an  example.  To  offend  a  little 
one  was  worse  than  being  sunk  by  a  millstone 


66  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

into  the  sea.  A  cup  of  cold  water  given  to  a 
child  would  win  a  special  reward.  The  angels 
of  the  children  behold  ever  the  face  of  the 
Father.  Thus  the  child,  in  all  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  was  made  the  creditor  of  the  race. 

Jesus  carried  this  doctrine  of  man  on  to 
the  uttermost  issue.  We  have  never  yet 
secured  the  full  meaning  of  that  "inasmuch" 
in  the  account  of  the  final  judgment.  The 
Lord  lives  beyond  the  need  of  man's  overt  aid. 
But  human  beings  are  his  representatives. 
The  righteous  had  so  far  overlooked  this  fact, 
that  they  were  forgetful  of  any  ministry  to 
him;  and  what  had  been  the  unconscious 
glory  of  the  righteous  was  the  unconscious 
tragedy  of  the  wicked.  The  judgment  day 
will  be  filled  with  human  tests.  He  who  has 
not  acted  as  if  human  beings  stood  for  God 
cannot  meet  the  final  standards.  Jesus's  pic- 
ture of  the  judgment  is  a  statement  of  divine 
authority ;  and  it  is  an  appraisement  of  human 
worth. 

Thus  do  we  see  that  from  whatever  side  we 
come  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  we  find  an 
exalted  doctrine  of  man.  The  incarnation 
itself  is  a  contribution  to  that  doctrine.  If 
we  call  it  "the  human  life  of  God"  it  was  a  life 
lived  for  the  sake  of  man.  The  Word  became 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  men,  full  of  grace  and 
truth,  because  men  needed  the  message  of  that 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  67 

Word.  The  whole  life  of  Jesus  was  lived  for 
man.  He  himself  said,  ^^For  their  sakes  I 
sanctify  myself."  All  those  sacrificial  phrases 
that  describe  the  purpose  of  his  coming  add 
glory  to  human  life.  The  joy  that  was  set 
before  him  was  the  goal  of  a  redeemed 
humanity.  His  living  for  men  was  simply 
his  teaching  about  men,  made  over  into  con- 
crete terms.  In  the  Parable  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  he  gives  the  revelation  of  his  own 
attitude  toward  men.  One  soul,  brought  back 
into  right  relations  with  God,  makes  joy  in 
heaven.  It  is  the  Eternal  One  who  is  repre- 
sented as  saying,  "Rejoice  with  me."  Men 
may  deny  the  doctrine  of  the  only  begotten 
Son,  but  they  can  scarcely  deny  that  that 
doctrine  leads  on  to  a  wondrous  doctrine  of 
human  worth. 

The  Cross,  viewed  in  one  light,  becomes  the 
very  climax  of  the  doctrine  of  man.  Theolo- 
gians have  often  laid  their  stress  upon  some 
single  purpose  of  the  divine  sacrifice.  One 
has  said  that  the  Cross  appeases  the  anger  of 
God;  another  that  the  Cross  maintains  the 
majesty  of  the  law;  another  that  the  Cross  is 
a  moral  influence  wooing  and  mnning  the 
heart  of  man  to  God;  another  that  the  Cross 
is  the  expression  of  the  Father's  sorrow  with 
the  sins  and  sorrows  of  his  children.  But  we 
may  surely  take  one  meaning  of  the  Cross  to 


68  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

be  the  divine  estimate  of  man.  God's  sense 
of  values  must  be  preserved.  He  did  not 
send  bis  Son  to  die  for  worms  of  the  dust. 
That  idea  may  fit  an  extreme  mood  of  spiritual 
abasement.  We  may  grant  all  possible  con- 
descension in  the  atoning  act  of  God,  but  we 
cannot  grant  a  condescension  that  dedicates 
infinite  worth  to  finite  worthlessness.  Jesus 
died  for  men  just  because  men  were  far  more 
than  worms  of  the  dust.  If  we  are  to  keep 
that  theory  of  atonement  that  has  long  held 
the  heart  of  the  church,  we  are  driven  to 
affirm  that  the  Cross  gives  us  a  divine  estimate 
of  mankind.  No  man  ever  appreciates  the 
worth  of  himself  until  he  gets  the  appraisal 
of  Calvary.  The  dying  of  Jesus  is  not  out  of 
harmony  with  his  teaching  and  his  living.  The 
whole  program  is  like  the  garment  taken  from 
him  on  the  day  of  crucifixion;  it  is  woven 
throughout  without  seam.  Men  may  decry  a 
doctrine  of  substitution,  but  they  cannot  say 
that  such  a  doctrine  is  a  slight  tribute  to 
human  worth.  In  such  a  doctrine  thorns  and 
nails  and  spears  and  all  the  drama  of  the 
Cross  are  made  into  tributes  to  the  soul  of 
man. 

This  carries  us  on  to  the  biblical  teaching 
of  man's  permanent  worth.  The  doctrine  of 
immortality  makes  its  incalculable  addition 
to  the  doctrine  of  man.    There  is  a  story,  for 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  69 

which  the  writer  cannot  vouch,  that  Thomas 
Carlyle  in  a  mood  of  pessimism  one  day  wrote 
this  peevish  estimate  of  man: 

What  is  man?     A  foolish  baby! 

Vainly  strives  and  fumes  and  frets! 
Demanding   all,   deserving   nothing, 

One  small  grave  is  all  he  gets! 

Language  like  this  is  certainly  no  contribu- 
tion to  the  literature  of  self-respect.  The  story 
proceeds  to  relate  that  Carlyle's  wife  found 
this  poetic  depreciation  lying  on  the  table, 
and  that  she  wrote  the  following  confession 
and  correction : 

And  man?     O  hate  not,  nor  despise 
The  fairest,  lordliest  work  of  God! 

Think  not  he  made  thee  good  and  wise 
Only  to  sleep  beneath  the  sod! 

Doubtless  the  tale  is  apocryphal.  In  any  case 
the  latter  estimate  is  far  nearer  to  the  biblical 
conception,  and  it  is  altogether  worthy  of  a 
woman's  moral  instinct.  If  man  is  to  live 
forever,  as  the  climax  of  Revelation  insists, 
it  is  quite  impossible  for  him  to  "think  too 
much"  of  himself,  unless  he  indulges  in  com- 
parison of  himself  with  others.  An  argument 
for  immortality  does  not  fall  within  the  scope 
of  this  lecture ;  but  the  bearing  of  immortality, 
as  declared  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  on  the 
view  that  men  must  take  of  human  nature, 


70  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

touches  our  purpose  in  a  radical  way.  A 
deathless  person  must  respect  himself.  A 
deathless  person  must  command  the  respect 
of  a  world — and  of  God.  The  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality adds  an  infinite  measure  to  the 
doctrine  of  human  worth. 

Even  the  biblical  representation  of  heaven 
secures  a  relation  to  this  subject.  The  abode 
for  immortal  life,  as  well  as  immortal  life 
itself,  may  be  turned  into  a  human  estimate. 
The  book  of  Revelation  declares  that  the 
nations  shall  bring  "their  glory  and  honor" 
into  the  Eternal  City.  This  can  only  mean 
that  men  shall  make  some  contribution  to  the 
eternal  life.  What  they  are  and  what  they 
have  done  shall  fill  heaven  with  added  value. 
The  cities  of  earth  shall  transport  treasures 
to  the  Heavenly  City.  Here,  again,  we  come 
upon  a  reason  based  on  the  divine  sense  of 
values.  God  will  not  provide  an  Eternal  Home 
that  is  any  better  than  the  Eternal  Beings 
for  whom  he  makes  it  ready.  The  gem  is  to  be 
better  than  the  setting.  In  a  certain  sense, 
therefore,  jasper  walls  and  pearl  gates  and 
gold  streets,  as  seen  in  the  descriptions  of 
heaven,  are  tributes  to  human  souls.  The 
Bible  tells  us  that  "greater  than  the  house  is 
he  that  built  it,"  and  the  Bible  would  tell 
us,  also,  that  the  occupant  of  the  house  is 
greater  than  the  house.    God  will  provide  no 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  71 

everlasting  dwelling  that  is  better  than  the 
everlasting  dwellers.  Heaven  is  made  for 
man,  and  not  man  for  heaven.  The  many 
mansions  are  tributes  to  the  people  that  shall 
live  in  the  Father's  house.  The  Scriptures 
are  reserved  in  their  revealings  of  the  other 
land ;  but  their  descriptions  of  celestial  glories 
may  be  united  with  those  other  portions  of 
the  Bible  that  dignify  the  human  spirit  and 
may  be  taken  as  standing  for  the  divine  valu- 
ation of  the  essential  selves  of  men. 

This  review  of  the  teaching  of  the  several 
sections  of  the  Bible  has  confessedly  sought 
for  the  words  and  ideas  that  exalt  the  doe- 
trine  of  man.  Allowing  all  possible  discounts, 
and  admitting  all  possible  offsets,  the  resi- 
duum of  instruction  tending  to  glorify  human 
nature  is  significant.  We  need  not  wonder 
that  some  thoughtful  men  have  affirmed  that 
the  chief  characteristic  of  Christianity  is  the 
value  that  it  places  on  man.  If  we  do  not 
accept  this  statement,  we  can  still  declare 
that  the  Bible  is  the  supreme  Book  when 
judged  by  its  emphasis  on  human  values. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  need  of 
this  emphasis  in  our  own  age.  As  men  crowd 
more  and  more  into  the  great  centers  of  popu- 
lation, the  tendency  will  be  to  hold  men 
cheaply.  In  former  times  man  was  often 
highly  valued  because  of  his  rarity.     On  the 


72  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

far  Eastern  plains  a  new  face,  not  being  often 
seen,  was  regarded  with  curious  interest.  Thus 
Abraham  stood  in  the  door  of  his  tent  in  the 
heat  of  the  day  and  welcomed  the  stranger, 
because  the  stranger  was  an  event.  But  in  the 
modern  city  the  stranger  is  no  longer  an  event ; 
he  is  only  an  episode,  or  perhaps  an  incident. 
We  pass  him  on  the  dense  street,  and  we  do 
not  notice  him  at  all.  There  are  so  many  of 
him  that,  unless  we  are  heedful,  we  shall  come 
to  regard  him  lightly  just  because  he  is  hidden 
by  the  crowd.  When  factories  grow  so  huge 
that  men  are  known,  not  by  their  names,  but 
by  their  numbers,  only  the  scriptural  emphasis 
upon  men  as  such  can  save  human  beings  from 
being  deemed  "hands"  rather  than  souls.  If 
the  sin  of  the  countryside  is  an  excessive 
social  interest  that  makes  for  gossip,  the  sin 
of  the  city  is  a  social  carelessness  that  makes 
for  indifference.  The  various  problems  of  our 
social  life  wait  for  their  solution  upon  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  man.  When  that  doc- 
trine has  done  its  full  service,  race  problems, 
labor  problems,  liquor  problems,  and  all  their 
dreadful  accompaniments  will  issue  into  a 
righteous  and  intelligent  peace.  An  immortal 
son  of  God,  knowing  himself,  cannot  be  unjust 
to  another  immortal  son  of  God,  when  once 
he  knows  his  Brother. 

This  hints  at  the  personal  bearing  of  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  73 

doctrine.  As  men  grow  in  moral  and  spiritual 
experience,  they  find  themselves  using  more 
and  more  the  test  of  self-respect.  Knowing  that 
the  reaction  of  certain  behaviors  makes  them 
feel  that  a  fragment  of  the  soul  has  slipped 
away  from  them,  so  that  they  have  the  sense 
of  smallness,  they  guard  their  natures  lest 
legitimate  pride  should  be  destroyed.  Andrews 
Norton  once  wrote  to  his  son,  Charles  Eliot 
Norton,  who  was  about  to  go  abroad  for  an 
important  service,  telling  the  young  man  that 
his  family  and  friends  recognized  that  he  l>ad 
special  powers  for  doing  large  and  worthy 
things.  Then  he  added  that  "this  ought  not 
to  make  one  vain.  On  the  contrary,  their  true 
tendency  is  to  produce  that  deep  sense  of 
responsibility — of  what  we  owe  to  God,  to  our 
friends,  and  to  our  fellowmen — which  is 
wholly  inconsistent  with  presumption  or 
vanity."  It  was  a  wise  father  who  wrote  thus 
to  his  son.  If  the  Christian  doctrine  of  man 
be  true,  no  man  can  think  too  much  of  himself. 
There  is  a  type  of  saving  pride.  Clough  stated 
it  in  his  well-known  lines : 

Then  welcome,  Pride!  and  I  shall  find 
In  thee  a  power  to  lift  the  mind 
This  low  and  groveling  joy  above — 
'Tis  but  the  proud  can  truly  love. 

The  pride  that  comes  from  the  consciousness 


74  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

of  the  divine  image  has  power  to  restrain  from 
sins  and  trivialities,  and  it  has  power  like- 
wise to  constrain  toward  holiness  of  character 
and  largeness  of  service.  One  who  has  come  to 
believe  that  he  is  made  in  the  divine  image, 
that  he  is  one  of  the  divinely  appointed  rulers 
of  the  world,  that  the  great  laws  are  designed 
for  his  protection,  that  the  alluring  prophecies 
of  the  future  are  declarations  of  his  coming 
power,  that  his  worship  is  the  symbol  of  his 
partnership  with  the  Most  High,  that  the  in- 
carnation is  in  his  interest,  that  the  Infinite 
Teacher  brought  him  matchless  tributes,  that 
the  Cross  of  Calvary  is  an  expression  of  his 
own  valuation,  that  immortal  life  is  his  des- 
tiny, and  that  a  glorious  heaven  is  the  fitting 
place  for  his  final  dwelling — such  a  one  has 
gained  all  the  preventions  and  all  the  inspira- 
tions of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  self-respect. 
Sins  and  trivialities  cannot  flourish  when  one 
thinks  so  much  of  oneself ;  great  affections  and 
lasting  consecrations  seem  natural  to  one  so 
highly  endowed.  The  conception  that  makes 
for  the  dignity  of  self  makes  also  for  the  con- 
sideration of  others.  He  who  entertains  this 
view  begins  to 

Find  man's  veritable  stature  out, 
Erect,  sublime,  the  measure  of  a  man, 
And.  that's  the  measure  of  an  angel, 
Says  the  apostle. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN  75 

To  such  a  one  life  becomes  solemn  and  beau- 
tiful. He  is  now  the  son  of  God.  While  he 
knows  not  yet  what  he  shall  be,  he  sees  the 
vision  of  the  Elder  Brother  and  so  purifies 
himself  even  as  he  is  pure.  The  world  needs 
the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  in  order  that  it 
may  learn  the  gospel  of  the  sons  of  God. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Bible  and  Home 

The  significance  of  the  home  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  every  human  being  is  a  son  or  a 
daughter.  This  ordinary  statement  at  once 
insists  on  becoming  extraordinary.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  think  what  life  would  have  been,  or 
even  how  it  could  have  been,  if  children  had 
been  pushed  upon  the  earth  from  some  mys- 
terious void  and  had  been  nurtured  without 
the  providential  agency  of  fathers  and 
mothers.  So  much  do  we  realize  the  impor- 
tance of  the  home  that  where  it  is  impossible 
to  maintain  one,  owing  to  the  death,  or  inabil- 
ity, or  worthlessness  of  parents,  we  still  make 
provision  for  an  institution  that  shall  provide 
as  many  domestic  features  as  can  be  won  for 
the  orphaned.  This  we  call  an  Orphans'  Home. 
It  is  significant  that  the  sociological  tendency 
of  the  period  drifts  away  from  even  this  insti- 
tution. The  effort  now  is  to  bring  the  child- 
less and  the  parentless  together.  Goldsmith 
said  that  the  nakedness  of  the  indigent  world 
might  be  clothed  with  the  trimmings  of  the 
vain.    There  are  those  who  affirm  that,  if  the 

76 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  77 

parentless  and  the  childless  could  be  brought 
into  the  company  of  homes,  the  Orphan 
Asylum  would  be  no  longer  needed. 

Our  imaginations  may  make  an  easy  test. 
Let  an  authoritative  edict  go  forth  that  after 
the  approaching  midnight  the  home  would  be 
banished,  and  that  each  community  must  ad- 
just itself  to  some  other  form  of  social  life. 
What  would  such  an  edict  mean?  The  homes 
from  which  students  have  come  are  no  more 
responsible  for  them.  They  constitute  no 
longer  the  bases  of  supplies  on  which  they  can 
draw,  nor  the  alluring  hearthstones  to  which 
they  can  return.  The  workman  turns  no  more 
his  eager  feet  toward  the  lights  of  his  cottage. 
The  prince  finds  his  palace  removed  and  all 
its  splendor  ceases  to  invite  him.  Little  chil- 
dren are  herded  into  impersonal  surroundings 
and  become  public  rather  than  domestic 
charges.  The  scene  of  disaster  could  be  de- 
scribed Tvithout  merciful  stint.  These  sugges- 
tions are  enough  to  show  that  society  could 
scarcely  escape  chaos  if  the  home  were  to  be 
destroyed.  How  much  do  the  words  father, 
mother,  brother,  sister,  mfe,  husband,  son, 
daughter  mean?  Empty  out  their  closer  sig- 
nificance, and  you  vacate  much  of  life's 
meaning. 

Nor  is  this  the  narrow  word  of  an  ecclesi- 
astic   or    theologian.      Drummond    in    The 


78  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Ascent  of  Man  claims  that  the  evolution  of  a 
father  and  mother  was  the  final  effort  of 
nature.  John  Piske,  as  scientist  and  historian, 
points  out  the  helplessness  of  infant  life  as 
binding  parents  into  unity  that  grows  out  of 
responsibility.  Soon  after  its  birth  the  wee 
animal  runs  and  leaps,  while  the  wee  bird 
does  not  wait  long  ere  it  flies  from  limb  to 
limb ;  but  the  human  babe  in  the  ancient  forest 
lies  helpless  in  its  log  cradle  for  many  months. 
Both  Drummond  and  Fiske  agree  that  by  this 
program  the  God  of  nature  was  introducing 
patience,  devotion,  and  sacrifice  into  the  world 
and  was  making  ready  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  It  is  plain  that  Drummond  does  not 
state  it  too  strongly  when  he  says  that  "the 
goal  of  the  whole  plant  and  animal  life  seems 
to  have  been  the  creation  of  a  family  which 
the  very  naturalist  had  to  call  Mammals,"  or 
Mothers. 

This  represents  somewhat  the  divine  history 
of  the  home.  The  prophecy  of  the  home  like- 
wise does  some  convincing  work.  The  truth  is 
that  the  home  as  an  institution  plants  itself 
squarely  in  the  path  of  some  modern  social 
theories.  Some  of  those  theories  have  begun 
by  boldly  demanding  that  the  home  be  abol- 
ished because  it  has  been  made  a  buttress  of 
private  life  and  property.  Not  only  has  this 
suggestion  been  met  with  a  horror  that  in 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  79 

itself  expresses  the  instinctive  conviction  of 
the  sacredness  of  the  home,  but  it  has  been 
met  with  the  insistence  that  the  prophets 
should  name  their  substitute  for  the  hearth- 
stone. This  insistence  has  received  nothing 
more  than  hazy  and  vague  replies.  The 
prophet  stammers  out  some  dark  saying  about 
"something  better"  or  about  the  home  as  hav- 
ing fulfilled  its  mission  in  "the  evolution  of 
society";  and  by  the  very  helplessness  of  his 
speech  he  really  becomes  an  advocate  of  closer 
domestic  relations!  It  is  interesting  to  note 
how  these  reformers  seek  to  find  a  good  path 
back  from  their  social  desert!  They  soon  de- 
clare that  the  new  regime  must  keep  the  home 
intact,  and  that  only  sporadic  and  irrespon- 
sible voices  from  their  camp  are  lifted  against 
the  home's  sanctity!  The  antihome  prophet 
always  has  a  hard  task.  He  collides  with  one 
of  the  granite  convictions  of  humanity.  If  he 
would  save  the  rest  of  his  theory  he  must  save 
the  home  from  the  proposed  destruction.  God 
has  set  the  solitary  in  families.  Men  look  in 
vain  for  a  better  setting  for  the  jewel  of  life. 
From  all  their  seeking  they  come  back  in  due 
season  to  the  truth  that,  imperfect  as  the  home 
may  often  be,  it  is  still  rooted  and  grounded 
in  outer  life  and  in  inner  instinct,  and  that 
it  is  futile  to  try  to  make  better  what  God  has 
made  best. 


80  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

All  this  will  serve  for  emphasizing  the  im- 
portance of  the  home,  though  much  more  might 
be  added.  When  the  man  awakes  in  the  morn- 
ing, becomes  aware  of  himself,  and  then  hears 
the  voices  of  his  wife  and  children,  he  is 
immediately  related  to  one  of  the  fundamental 
institutions  of  society.  If  the  Bible  be,  as  we 
have  claimed,  preeminently  the  Book  of  Life, 
it  must  relate  itself  vitally  to  the  home.  Our 
inquiry,  therefore,  is.  What  bearing  does  the 
Book  have  upon  the  home?  The  answer  must 
necessarily  be  sketchy  and  incomplete ;  but  we 
can  soon  gather  an  answer  that  will  establish 
the  biblical  drift  of  teaching. 

The  Bible  begins  with  an  impressive  lesson 
of  monogamy.  In  the  Eden  life  one  man  and 
one  woman  join  hands  as  partners  in  joy  and 
work.  Let  the  account  be  poetry,  allegory, 
parable,  the  lesson  is  the  same.  In  that  inti- 
mate communion  with  God  that  found  him  in 
the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day,  bigamy  and 
polygamy  are  not  represented  as  being  at 
home.  Even  the  Fall  is  not  described  as 
quickly  dropping  man  low  enough  to  reach  the 
dreadful  level  of  promiscuity  or  of  any  of  the 
approaches  to  so-called  free  love.  It  required 
time  ere  that  downward  journey  could  be 
made.  Humanity  in  its  innocence  is  not 
described  as  starting  from  the  dens  of  polyg- 
amy. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  81 

But  in  season  the  Bible  gives  us  some  dis- 
concerting facts.  Bigamy  and  polygamy  con- 
front us  in  the  lives  of  some  worthies.  Let  it 
be  allowed  that  sometimes  the  motive  is  the 
perpetuation  of  the  home  itself.  Provision  is 
sought  against  the  curse  of  barrenness.  Let 
it  be  allowed,  also,  that  the  Bible  does  not 
represent  bigamy  as  working  well.  It  brought 
discord  into  Abraham's  tent.  The  peevish 
wife  drives  her  own  wretched  substitute  from 
the  door,  until  the  desolate  Hagar  stands  in 
her  loneliness  and  repeats  the  comforting 
ritual  of  the  seeing  God.  The  son  of  bigamy 
goes  off  into  his  wild  life,  with  his  hand 
against  every  man  and  every  man's  hand 
against  him.  The  admirable  thing  about  the 
second  patriarch  is  his  devotion  to  one  woman. 
Neutral  and  characterless  as  Isaac  seems  to 
be,  he  still  won  a  mention  in  the  marriage 
service  of  the  ages  by  his  faithfulness  to 
Rebecca  alone.  Upon  the  third  patriarch 
bigamy  was  forced  by  a  cruel  deception.  In 
truth  a  review  of  the  Old  Testament  will 
show  that  any  departure  from  the  unity  of 
the  home  made  for  trouble.  It  filled  the 
moving  tabernacles  of  the  patriarchs  with 
quarrels.  It  led  David  on  to  murder.  It 
drenched  Solomon  in  debauchery.  It  de- 
graded the  successive  kings  until  it  destroyed 
their  power  and  ruined  the  nation.     Its  in- 


82  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

evitable  end  was  the  loss  of  the  land  and  the 
sadness  of  captivity. 

The  Old  Testament  records  polygamy,  but 
it  does  not  applaud  polygamy.  When  once  a 
polygamist  stood  in  the  halls  of  Congress  and 
defended  his  right  to  a  seat  by  quoting  the 
examples  of  the  patriarchs,  his  plea  did  not 
avail.  Not  only  was  the  conviction  of  the 
nineteenth  century  against  his  contention,  but 
the  mood  of  the  very  Book  from  which  he 
quoted  was  his  enemy.  So  far  as  we  can  judge, 
monogamy  was  the  general  rule  among  the 
Jewish  people.  The  exemplars  of  bigamy  and 
polygamy  were  mainly  those  whose  position 
enabled  them  to  flaunt  the  public  sentiment 
of  their  day.  The  history  of  Old  Testament 
polygamy  is  so  sorrowful  that  the  Hebrew 
people  have  reacted  from  it  into  a  stanch 
defense  for  the  monogamic  home.  The  seduc- 
tion of  Tamar,  the  murder  of  Amnon,  the 
unfilial  licentiousness  of  Absalom,  the  sordid 
road  of  impurity  trod  by  the  later  monarchs 
of  Israel,  and  the  despair  of  the  Babylonish 
captivity,  make  a  piercing  case  against  polyg- 
amy. On  the  other  hand,  the  unwavering 
faithfulness  of  the  maid  in  the  Song  of  Solo- 
mon, the  patience  of  Hosea  with  his  prodigal 
wife,  the  idyllic  story  of  Ruth,  all  these  be- 
came persuasive  pleas  for  a  home  wherein  one 
man  and  one  woman  should  live  together  in 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  83 

loyal  love  even  until  death.  When  Jesus  came 
to  give  his  message  contemporaneous  polyg- 
amy had  all  but  ceased  in  Palestine.  But 
easy  divorce,  sometimes  called  "consecutive 
polygamy,"  had  become  prevalent.  The  world 
was  waiting  for  the  voice  of  authority,  and  it 
heard  that  voice  when  Christ  began  to  teach. 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  in  reference  to  mar- 
riage is  unmistakable.  It  may  impress  many 
as  severe;  it  cannot  impress  any  as  doubtful. 
If  we  accept  him  as  the  Supreme  Teacher  we 
receive  a  decision  given  with  no  equivocal 
terms.  It  is  often  said  that  the  method  of  the 
Lord  was  to  offer  general  principles  and  to 
leave  his  followers  to  carry  out  these  prin- 
ciples in  the  spirit  of  loving  discipleship. 
Thus  he  declined  to  give  detailed  rules  for 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  explicit  in- 
structions for  the  division  of  estates,  definite 
laws  for  prayer  and  worship  and  almsgiving. 
Yet  when  he  discussed  marriage  he  gave  both 
general  principles  and  specific  rules.  If  this 
was  not  the  only  case  where  he  became  sponsor 
for  a  rule  it  was  surely  the  most  emphatic 
case.  He  seemed  to  feel  that  concerning  mar- 
riage and  the  home  he  must  give  a  mass  of 
distinct  precepts.  It  was  as  if  he  deemed  the 
home  so  sacred  and  its  enemies  so  subtle  and 
powerful  as  to  make  necessary  some  particular 
instruction. 


84  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Perhaps  we  shall  not  err  in  saying  that 
Jesus  found  in  his  time  argent  reasons  for 
specific  and  strong  teaching  about  marriage. 
The  Jews,  who  went  to  a  mechanical  extreme 
in  their  observance  of  the  Sabbath  law,  had 
gone  to  an  opposite  extreme  in  their  attitude 
toward  the  law  of  the  home.  In  this  regard 
the  period  was  worse  than  our  own,  but  it 
was  not  unlike  our  own.  The  domestic  con- 
science of  the  Jews  had  been  more  or  less 
weakened.  Mere  trifles  were  made  excuses  for 
the  breaking  \ip  of  home.  Doubtless  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Romans  was  making  itself  felt 
among  the  Hebrews.  Professor  Sheldon 
quotes  Dorner  as  showdng  the  reckless  ease  of 
divorce  among  leading  Romans.  One  man 
divorced  his  wife  because  she  went  unveiled 
on  the  street;  another  because  she  spoke 
familiarly  to  a  freedwoman;  another  because 
she  went  to  a  play  Tsdthout  his  knowledge. 
Even  Cicero,  proclaimed  a  very  noble  Roman, 
divorced  his  first  wife  that  he  might  marry  a 
wealthier  woman,  and  his  second  wife  because 
she  did  not  seem  to  be  sufficiently  afflicted  over 
the  death  of  his  daughter!  "In  fine,"  says 
Professor  Sheldon,  "it  was  not  altogether 
hyperbole  when  Seneca  spoke  of  noble  women 
as  reckoning  their  years  by  their  successive 
husbands  rather  than  by  the  Consuls''  (His- 
tory of  the  Early  Church,  pages  29,  30). 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  85 

The  records  of  this  same  period  among  the 
Romans  will  rout  the  claim  that  easy  divorce 
tends  to  purity.  Faithlessness  to  marriage 
vows  was  not  seriously  regarded,  and  there 
were  instances  of  so-called  noble  women 
registering  as  public  prostitutes  in  order  that 
they  might  thus  avoid  the  penalties  of  the 
laws !  Easy  divorce  seemed  to  be  accompanied 
by  easy  virtue,  as  if,  indeed,  both  evils  grew 
naturally  out  of  the  same  soil.  The  Roman 
fashions  were  having  their  influence  on  the 
Jews.  The  sacred  law  was  searched  and  was 
explained  away  with  evil  subtlety  in  order 
that  men  might  be  religiously  released  from 
the  marriage  bond. 

Evidently,  then,  the  times  demanded  that 
Jesus  should  save  the  marriage  law  from 
looseness.  The  ease  of  divorce  was  not  un- 
like that  in  our  own  land  to-day.  If  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  was  needed  then  it  is  needed 
now  in  order  that  marriage  may  recover  its 
binding  solemnity.  On  general  principles  we 
must  all  rejoice  that  Jesus  did  not  give  a 
dubious  word  on  this  sacred  matter.  It  may 
be  doubted  whether  any  man  who  did  not  have 
the  cause  of  his  own  pleasure  to  serve  and 
who  was  not  willing  to  subordinate  a  social 
law  to  the  superficial  joy  of  his  own  life,  would 
be  willing  to  modify  the  Saviour's  teaching. 
Certainly  that  teaching  has  long  been  the  firm 


86  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

bulwark  of  the  married  life.  Had  Jesus  spoken 
with  doubt,  or  had  he  given  sanction  to  easy 
divorce,  what  would  the  results  have  been? 
Our  homes  would  have  been  builded  upon  the 
sands  of  freakish  impulses  and  of  hasty  tem- 
pers. But  Jesus's  word  puts  rock  into  the 
domestic  foundation.  When  it  was  given  it 
was  met  by  all  of  the  objections  which  it  still 
evokes.  Some  said  that  the  teaching  was  ex- 
treme in  its  severity,  quite  outdoing  the  law 
of  Moses  in  its  demands.  Others  said  that 
rather  than  to  submit  to  a  bond  so  unbreak- 
able, it  would  be  better  not  to  marry  at  all. 
Still  Jesus  did  not  lower  his  teaching.  God 
was  the  author  of  marriage;  man  must  not 
assume  to  be  its  destroyer.  God  takes  two 
persons  and  makes  them  one  flesh;  man  must 
not  cut  that  vital  bond. 

Plainly,  then,  Jesus  felt  that  marriage 
established  a  family  relationship  which  was 
to  resemble  other  family  relationships  in  its 
indissolubleness.  How  can  a  man  get  rid  of 
his  brother,  or  his  sister,  or  his  father  or 
mother,  when  God  has  decreed  a  relation  in 
the  flesh  that  cannot  be  severed?  One  may 
live  apart  from  brother  or  sister,  or  father  or 
mother,  as  a  matter  of  convenience  or  peace; 
but  how  can  one  destroy  the  relationship?  In 
spite  of  angry  decrees,  is  not  the  brother  still 
a  brother,  and  do  not  father  and  mother  re- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  87 

main  father  and  mother  in  defiance  of  all 
unfilial  pronouncements  of  divorce?  In 
Jesus's  view  the  second  family  relationship 
was  as  indissoluble  as  the  first.  If  one  were 
to  argue  from  a  certain  standpoint  it  might 
be  easy  to  claim  that  it  must  be  even  more 
indissoluble.  A  man  does  not  choose  his  first 
home.  It  represents  a  necessity  against  which 
he  may  not  strive.  But  he  does  choose  his 
second  home,  and  it  represents  a  union  for 
which  he  is  himself  distinctly  responsible. 
Why  should  a  man  be  allowed  to  divorce  him- 
self from  the  home  which  is  founded  by  his 
liberty  while  still  being  inexorably  bound  to 
the  home  which  was  founded  without  his 
choice?  Jesus  taught  that  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  society,  as  resting  on  the  word  of  God, 
demanded  that  the  second  home  be  as  sacredly 
unbreakable  as  the  first.  The  "one  flesh" 
must  not  be  severed  in  either  case. 

Hence  it  comes  about  that,  while  the  law  of 
Jesus  does  not  allow  divorce,  unless  for  the 
one  reason  mentioned  later,  it  does  not  forbid 
separation.  The  sin  does  not  consist  in  put- 
ting away  the  wife  when  conditions  are  un- 
bearable ;  it  does  consist  in  marrying  another. 
He  does  not  insist  that  the  quarrelsome  shall 
live  amid  their  brawls ;  but  he  does  insist  that 
they  shall  not  go  into  another  experiment  that 
degrades  a  sacred  covenant.    We  do  not  long 


88  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

listen  to  the  specious  arguments  for  easy 
divorce,  with  the  privilege  of  remarriage, 
without  discovering  that  these  arguments 
affirm  either  that  personal  purity  is  impos- 
sible or  that  personal  convenience  and  pleasure 
are  the  primary  demands  of  life.  Jesus  did 
not  so  teach.  Dr.  Peabody,  in  his  matchless 
discussion  of  Jesus's  teaching  about  the  fam- 
ily, well  says :  "The  family  is,  to  Jesus,  not  a 
temporary  arrangement  at  the  mercy  of  un- 
controlled temper  or  shifting  desire;  it  is  or- 
dained for  that  very  discipline  in  forbearance 
and  restraint  which  are  precisely  what  many 
people  would  avoid,  and  the  easy  rupture  of 
its  union  blights  these  virtues  in  their  bud. 
Why  should  one  concern  himself  in  marriage 
to  be  considerate  and  forgiving,  if  it  is  easier 
to  be  divorced  than  it  is  to  be  good?"  (Jesus 
Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  p.  159. )  That 
these  words  touch  the  evil  heart  of  many 
modern  divorces  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The 
emphatic  teaching  of  Jesus  was  that  marriage 
should  not  be  regarded  as  a  breakable  agree- 
ment of  convenience,  but  rather  as  an  indis- 
soluble pledge  of  permanent  union. 

Whether  Jesus  allowed  any  exception  to 
this  law  remains  a  debatable  matter  among 
the  scholars.  Some  contend  that  the  "save 
for  fornication"  clause  is  an  interpolation, 
and  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  admitted  no 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  89 

divorce  whatsoever.  Others  contend  that  the 
gospel  writers  who  omit  this  clause  regarded 
the  one  reason  for  divorce  as  so  certain  that 
it  was  not  deemed  necessary  to  mention  its 
legitimacy.  It  may  be  claimed  with  a  show 
of  reason  that  the  regarding  of  adultery  as 
an  exceptional  sin  against  the  married  life 
stands  for  something  instinctive  in  human 
nature.  Notwithstanding  all  statements  that 
desertion  and  abuse  and  drunkenness  may  be 
so  aggravated  as  to  constitute  offenses  worse 
than  fornication,  normal  men  and  women  con- 
tinue to  assign  a  lonely  infamy  to  the  sin  of 
carnal  unfaithfulness.  If  Jesus  did  use  the 
exceptional  clause  there  is  not  wanting  evi- 
dence that  his  word  is  confirmed  by  an  all 
but  universal  feeling.  Many  races  have  been 
disposed  to  decree  that  the  sin  of  adultery  is 
the  one  iniquity  sharp  and  incisive  enough  to 
sever  the  "one  flesh.''  Perhaps  it  is  safe  to 
affirm  that  the  great  majority  of  good  men  and 
women  do  not  shrink  from  the  exception  as 
being  unworthy  of  Jesus's  teaching.  But,  the 
exception  being  granted,  that  teaching  is 
clear  and  uncompromising.  When  that  teach- 
ing becomes  the  law  of  the  world  divorce 
courts  will  be  largely  emptied  and  the  mar- 
riage vows  will  be  assumed  with  less  haste 
and  with  more  solemnity. 

The  New  Testament  is  thus  seen  to  be  the 


90  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

headquarters  of  that  conception  of  marriage 
that  alone  gives  a  firm  foundation  to  the  home. 
It  is  impossible  to  conceive  what  would  have 
been  the  dismal  statistics  of  divorce,  if  Jesus 
had  made  the  marriage  bond  of  slender 
strength.  Truly  the  situation  is  bad  enough 
as  it  is.  Often  the  causes  for  divorce  are 
trivial;  sometimes  they  are  deliberately  ar- 
ranged by  the  separating  parties!  and  occa- 
sionally the  much-married  comedian  is  hailed 
on  the  stage  with  a  joking  tolerance.  But 
when  more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  the  mar- 
riages of  the  land  stand  the  tests  of  time  and 
are  kept  in  fidelity  until  the  "one  flesh'^  is 
severed  by  death,  it  is  evident  that  some  strong 
force  still  guards  the  home  from  desecration. 

We  need  not  inquire  what  that  force  is;  it 
is  the  Word  of  Christ,  xlmong  those  who 
follow  him  least,  he  has  made  divorce  "bad 
form";  among  those  who  follow  him  some- 
what, he  has  made  it  doubtful  morals;  while 
among  those  who  accept  him  as  Lord  and 
Master,  he  has  made  it  sacrilege  and  blas- 
phemy. The  devotees  of  pleasure  and  con- 
venience and  lust  may  well  quarrel  with  the 
decree  of  Christ.  The  devotees  of  compromise 
may  seek  to  refine  and  discount  his  explicit 
law.  Yet  all  those  who  see  in  the  home  the 
very  center  and  heart  of  a  properly  organized 
society,  as  well  as  the  very  ordination  of  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  91 

Lord  God  Almighty,  will  not  cease  to  be  grate- 
ful that  Christ  spoke  so  unmistakably  con- 
cerning its  solemn  sanction.  He  fixed  forever 
the  difference  between  the  civil  marriage  and 
the  Christian  marriage.  He  filled  the  mar- 
riage service  with  religious  terms.  ^^The  sight 
of  God/'  ^^instituted  of  God,"  "mystical 
union,"  "holy  estate,"  "Cana  of  Galilee," 
"reverently,  discreetly,  and  in  the  fear  of 
God,"  "God's  ordinance,"  "forsaking  all 
other,"  "so  long  as  ye  both  shall  live,"  "for 
better,  for  worse,  for  richer,  for  poorer,  in 
sickness  and  in  health,"  "the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  "God  hath  joined  together,"  "in  holy 
love  until  their  lives'  end" — all  these  words 
are  Christ's  words,  his  Spirit  confirmed  them 
in  the  service  of  his  church.  That  service  may 
well  close  with  the  prayer  which  declares  that 
his  is  "the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the 
glory,  forever." 

More  and  more  careful  students  of  both 
sociology  and  Christianity  will  see  that  no 
safe  conception  of  marriage  can  be  found  save 
in  the  words  of  the  Lord.  The  civil  contract 
idea  is  full  of  peril.  The  case  of  Percy  Bysshe 
Shelley,  the  English  poet,  is  in  evidence.  The 
illustration  may  be  extreme,  but  it  will  the 
better  show  the  sure  goal  of  that  theory  of 
marriage  that  forgets  God.     Shelley,   for  a 


92  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

time  at  least,  was  an  outright  atheist.  Bow- 
ing God  out  of  the  universe,  he  could  not 
consistently  leave  God  in  his  theory  of  mar- 
riage. His  college  thesis  was  an  argument  for 
atheism.  Given  sufiftcient  provocation  and 
motive,  Shelley  was  sure  to  reach  the  limit  of 
a  godless  idea  of  marriage.  It  seems  almost 
impossible  for  men  with  a  literary  mania  to 
see  social  or  moral  fault  in  their  heroes,  and 
their  tendency  often  is  to  absolve  writers  of 
genius  from  the  usual  laws.  Shelley  married 
the  daughter  of  a  retired  innkeeper.  In  two 
years  he  separated  from  his  wife  and  two 
children.  Three  years  later  the  wife  drowned 
herself,  meeting  voluntarily  a  fate  which 
Shelley  was  to  meet  involuntarily.  An  apolo- 
gist for  Shelley  says,  "The  refinements  of 
intellectual  sympathy  which  poets  desiderate 
in  their  spouses  Shelley  failed  to  find  in  his 
wife,  but  for  a  time  he  lived  with  her  not  un- 
happily; nor  to  the  last  had  he  any  fault  to 
allege  against  her,  except  such  negative  ones 
as  might  be  implied  in  his  meeting  a  woman 
he  liked  better."  The  more  we  study  this 
language  the  more  does  its  superficiality  im- 
press us.  Let  it  be  said  that  Shelley  was 
young  and  heedless  when  he  first  married; 
let  it  be  said,  also,  that  he  was  in  general 
strangely  lovable  and  warmly  philanthropic; 
and  let  it  be  said,  even,  that  he  was  in  his 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  93 

lifetime  execrated  beyond  his  deserts.  But  it 
would  not  be  so  easy  to  palliate  his  conduct 
if  one's  own  daughter  had  drowned  herself  to 
end  her  sorrow,  or  if  one's  own  daughter  had 
traveled  with  him,  unmarried,  over  France 
and  Switzerland!  Somehow  literary  admira- 
tion plays  tricks  on  moral  natures.  Doubtless 
the  judgment  of  Shelley  on  the  basis  of  his 
boyish  poem  "Queen  Mab"  was  unfair,  even  as 
its  surreptitious  publication  without  his  con- 
sent was  unfair.  None  the  less  one  may  trace 
a  connection  between  his  college  production 
in  defense  of  atheism  and  his  later  domestic 
conduct.  No  marriage  has  a  sure  foundation 
apart  from  a  religious  sanction.  The  more 
we  consider  the  possibilities  suggested  by  this 
confessedly  extreme  illustration,  the  more 
Tvill  we  cling  to  the  strict  theory  of  Jesus 
as  against  the  limping  logic  of  any  loose 
sociologist. 

We  have  thus  seen  that  the  foundation  of 
the  home  comes  to  the  Bible,  and  particularly 
to  the  goal  of  the  Bible's  revelation  in  Christ, 
for  its  solidity.  Other  foundations  are 
fashioned  of  yielding  sand.  The  marriage 
ceremony  might  well  be  modified  in  some 
minor  regards;  but  the  word  of  Christ  will 
insist  that  the  ceremony  shall  represent  no 
flimsy  contract.  While  he  rules  the  pronounce- 
ment will  be,   "God  hath  joined  together"; 


94  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

and  the  human  response  will  remain,  "till 
death  us  do  part.'' 

The  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  home  goes 
farther  than  his  word  about  marriage,  deep 
and  far-reaching  as  that  is.  His  life  empha- 
sized the  sacredness  of  the  family  relation. 
He  went  back  from  the  scene  in  the  Temple 
to  be  "subject  unto  his  parents."  He  wrought 
his  first  miracle  on  the  occasion  of  a  mar- 
riage. Many  of  his  miracles  of  mercy  were 
performed  in  answer  to  a  family  plea.  He 
heard  the  cry  of  a  mother  when  he  healed  the 
daughter  of  the  Syrophcenician  woman,  and 
again  when  he  raised  up  the  son  of  the  widow 
of  Nain.  He  heard  the  cry  of  a  father  when 
he  cast  out  the  evil  spirit  and  restored  a 
stricken  son,  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind. 
He  heard  the  cry  of  sisters  when  he  stood 
weeping  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus.  The  domes- 
tic plea  quickly  reached  his  heart  and  sum- 
moned his  aid.  It  was  so  even  in  the  personal 
sense.  In  the  agony  of  the  crucifixion  he  did 
not  fail  to  commend  his  mother  to  the  care  of 
his  best-to-do  disciple,  and  to  cause  the  writ- 
ing of  that  simple  statement,  "From  that  day 
that  disciple  took  her  into  his  own  home." 

Indeed,  through  all  the  life  of  Jesus  he 
glorified  the  family,  unless  the  family  stood 
in  the  way  of  his  truth  or  work.  Emerson 
said  once,  "I  will  hate  my  father  and  my 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  95 

mother  when  my  genius  calls  me."  We  all 
know  where  Emerson  got  those  words;  they 
were  not  written  on  his  own  authority.  Jesus 
made  our  human  ancestry  subject  to  our 
divine  ancestry.  Above  the  earthly  parents 
he  saw  the  heavenly  Father.  The  God  who 
ordained  the  home  was  above  the  home.  But 
Jesus  would  allow  no  other  exception.  He 
himself  lived  by  that  supreme  law.  He  was 
homeless  in  obedience  to  his  own  divine  mis- 
sion. There  is  a  peculiar  illustration  of  this, 
hidden  somewhat  by  our  awkward  distribution 
of  the  Bible  into  chapters  and  verses.  The 
seventh  chapter  of  John  ends  with  the  words, 
^'They  went  every  man  to  his  own  house."  It 
is  not  diflftcult  for  us  to  reproduce  the  scene, 
even  with  its  Oriental  touches.  The  discus- 
sion of  the  day  is  over.  The  hearers  did  what 
men  and  women  have  been  doing  ever  since — 
they  turned  to  the  twinkling  lights  of  their 
homes.  Soon  the  crowds  had  disappeared  and 
the  various  persons  had  joined  themselves  to 
their  family  groups.  The  homeless  One  was 
left  alone.  The  first  verse  of  the  eighth  chap- 
ter of  John  says,  "Jesus  went  unto  the  mount 
of  Olives."  It  was  just  an  instance  of  his 
tragedy,  "The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  have  nests ;  but  the  Son  of  man  hath 
not  where  to  lay  his  head."  The  homelessness 
of  Jesus  was  vicarious.     Sometimes  still  he 


96  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

calls  Ms  own  into  the  same  vicariousness.  He 
separates  sons  and  daughters  from  their 
fathers  and  mothers  and  sends  them  afar  to 
preach  his  kingdom.  Wherever  those  home- 
less ones  may  go,  the  meaning  of  home  takes 
on  a  new  and  sacred  meaning.  They  carry 
with  them  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  him  who, 
being  weary,  invited  the  weary  ones  to  come 
to  him  for  rest;  being  thirsty,  invited  the 
thirsty  ones  to  drink  of  the  water  of  life ;  being 
poor,  invited  the  poor  to  come  to  him  for 
riches;  being  dead,  invited  the  dying  ones  to 
look  to  him  for  eternal  life;  and,  being  home- 
less, still  commands  the  world  to  look  to  him 
for  the  spirit  of  home.  Even  though  he  him- 
self went  down  into  the  darkness  of  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  ever  since  his  day  the  people  that 
have  heard  and  heeded  his  word  have  found 
the  lights  of  home  more  inviting  and  the  mis- 
sion of  the  home  more  divine. 

There  is  yet  another  consideration  which 
must  be  noted  ere  we  receive  the  full  message 
of  Jesus  about  the  home.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  concerning  God  was  almost  wholly 
based  on  a  figure  of  speech  derived  from  the 
home.  In  the  Old  Testament  God  is  men- 
tioned under  the  title  of  fatherhood  but  seven 
times.  Five  times  he  is  spoken  of  as  the  father 
of  the  Jewish  people;  twice  he  is  spoken  of 
as  the  father  of  individual  men.     Only  once 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  97 

in  the  sweep  of  the  ancient  Scriptures  is  there 
found  a  prayer  addressed  to  God  as  Father. 
God  was  the  King  of  kings,  and  the  Lord  of 
hosts;  he  was  Creator  and  Lawgiver.  But  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  people  he  was  not  yet 
Father.  The  world  waited  long  ere  men  found 
an  Elder  Brother  who  could  break  the  spell 
of  their  orphanhood  and  reveal  to  them  a 
Father.  When  Jesus  desired  to  tell  men  what 
God  was  like  he  went  to  their  homes  and  found 
therein  the  form  of  his  teaching.  He  sprinkled 
the  New  Testament  with  the  domestic  name 
of  God.  Two  hundred  and  sixty-five  times 
God  is  spoken  of  under  the  title  of  Father- 
hood. The  sacredness  of  the  home  relation 
could  not  receive  holier  emphasis. 

Thus  the  homes  which  are  founded  by  the 
Lord  become  revelations  of  the  Lord.  Domes- 
tic relations  are  teachers  of  theology.  Well 
may  we  speak  of  a  Family  Bible!  There  is 
such  a  Bible.  The  illustration  of  theology  is 
the  family  illustration.  Some  day  we  shall 
recover  that  theology,  and  we  shall  place  the 
theologies  that  have  superseded  it  in  their 
secondary  place.  Jesus  was  the  final  Teacher 
of  theology,  and  we  must  give  him  the  primacy. 
Under  his  teaching  every  true  home  is  a  symbol 
of  the  divine  household;  every  true  parent  is 
a  limited  representative  of  God;  every  true 
son  is  an  example  of  the  filial  spirit  that  is 


98  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

religion.  The  path  of  prayer  starts  with  the 
word  Father.  The  doctrine  of  providential 
care  is  explained  by  the  word  Father.  The 
call  to  obedience  refers  to  the  will  of  the 
Father.  The  deeper  tragedy  of  sin  comes  from 
the  fact  that  the  offense  is  against  the  Father. 
Conversion  is  a  return  to  the  Father. 

Taking,  then,  the  direct  teaching  of  Jesus 
with  reference  to  marriage  as  the  founding  of 
the  home,  taking  his  life  in  its  merciful  rela- 
tion to  the  home,  and  taking  his  teaching 
about  God  as  based  on  the  home,  we  are  justi- 
fied in  saying  that  Jesus  was  the  Prophet 
and  Saviour  of  the  Family.  The  vision  that 
he  gave  of  the  other  life  took  on  that  form 
again.  He  declared  that  he  was  preparing  a 
place  for  his  own,  and  he  called  that  place 
the  "Father's  house.''  He  was  likewise  pre- 
paring a  home  this  side  of  the  many  mansions. 
A  Carpenter  he  was.  He  has  builded  many 
sanctuaries,  some  for  worship,  and  some  for 
the  mercy  that  we  show  to  the  sick,  and  aged, 
and  destitute.  But  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth 
is  the  builder  of  the  true  home.  His  word 
lays  its  foundations,  raises  its  walls,  places 
its  capstone,  and  furnishes  its  atmosphere  of 
peace  and  love.  The  home  that  is  placed  on 
any  other  word  cannot  stand  the  shock  of  the 
tempest.  It  is  based  on  sand;  and  when  the 
winds  and  rains  and  storms  of  passion  come, 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  99 

the  home  will  fall,  and  great  will  be  the  fall 
thereof.  The  world  needs  to-day  the  lesson 
of  Jesus  about  the  home;  and  it  needs,  also, 
the  spirit  of  Jesus  in  the  home.  When  men 
and  women  yield  to  that  spirit,  extravagance 
vrill  be  checked,  forbearance  will  be  increased, 
love  will  be  promoted,  peace  will  be  estab- 
lished. Husband  and  wife  will  not  then  plead 
that  Jesus's  strict  decree  concerning  marriage 
may  be  annulled.  Earthly  homes  will  be  like 
vestibules  of  the  Father's  House. 

There  remains  for  brief  discussion  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Epistles  of  the  New^  Testament  to 
the  home  life  of  the  people.  The  tendency 
here  has  been  to  give  undue  emphasis  to  cer- 
tain phases  of  PauPs  teaching.  Some  re- 
formers, especially  some  radical  feminists, 
have  spoken  of  the  great  apostle's  teaching 
with  scant  respect.  The  command  to  wives 
to  obey  their  husbands  has  been  kept  apart 
from  the  command  to  husbands  to  love  their 
wives  even  as  Christ  loved  the  church.  Christ 
loved  the  church  so  that  he  gave  his  life  for 
it ;  and  w^hen  husbands  love  their  wives  to  that 
sublime  extent,  obedience  is  no  longer  de- 
manded for  tyranny.  All  technical  matters 
aside,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  apostolic  treat- 
ment of  the  domestic  relations,  touching  the 
relative  duties  of  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  and  masters  and  servants,  show^s 


100  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

a  marked  balance.  When  each  party  keeps 
his  portion  of  the  precepts,  and  is  strictly 
minded  to  fulfill  precisely  his  part  of  the 
apostolic  contract,  debates  about  primacy  and 
authority  find  their  gracious  solution  in 
mutual  love.  Unless  we  should  wish  to  make 
undue  account  of  Saint  PauPs  doctrine  of  the 
husband's  primacy,  we  cannot  say  that  his 
attitude  toward  womankind  was  marked  by 
anything  other  than  utmost  respect.  Just 
what  his  own  domestic  experiences  were  is 
a  question  of  age-long  doubt.  If  we  study  his 
actual  references  to  women  we  shall  find  a 
series  of  compliments  too  deep  to  serve  as  the 
expression  of  a  superficial  gallantry  and  too 
genuine  to  allow  the  author  to  be  classed  as  a 
hater  of  the  mothers  and  sisters  and  wives  of 
the  race.  Near  the  end  of  his  life  Paul  caught 
the  vision  of  his  Master.  Beyond  his  wander- 
ings he  saw  a  destination ;  above  his  imprison- 
ments he  saw  a  freedom ;  after  his  shipwrecks 
he  saw  a  haven ;  and  the  destination  and  free- 
dom and  haven  were  all  expressed  in  the  words 
"at  home."  "At  home,"  "at  home  with  the 
Lord,"  this  was  PauFs  conception  of  the  wait- 
ing heaven.  He,  too,  exalted  the  home  by 
making  it  the  forefigure  of  heaven. 

We  have  now  presented  enough  to  justify 
the  statement  that  the  Bible  is  the  stanch 
friend  of  the  home.     As  long  as  men  and 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HOME  101 

women  read  and  obey  the  Book,  and  love  and 
follow  the  Lord  of  the  Book,  their  feet  will 
turn  reverently  homeward  as  to  the  place  of 
God's  appointing,  as  to  the  school  of  God's 
own  discipline,  as  to  the  place  of  God's  own 
joy,  and  as  to  the  anteroom  of  God's  own 
heaven. 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Bible  and  Education 

The  man  whose  program  of  daily  life  sug- 
gests the  outline  of  these  chapters  awakes  in 
the  morning  to  the  consciousness  of  himself. 
He  is  soon  aware  of  the  presence  of  his  family 
and  catches  the  sense  of  home.  Directly  the 
children  are  made  ready  for  school  and  join 
that  romping  procession  that  moves  each  day 
at  the  joint  command  of  parents  and  teachers. 
In  the  normal  Christian  community  this  fact 
of  school-going  is  all  but  universal.  In  such 
a  community  the  illiterate  person  is  so  excep- 
tional as  to  be  a  curiosity;  he  is  marked  by 
separateness  if  not  by  distinction.  All  of  us 
have  marched  to  school;  all  of  us  have  had 
teachers. 

The  fact  is  still  more  significant.  School- 
going  is  not  merely  a  general  experience ;  it  is 
a  long  experience.  It  controls  about  one  fourth 
of  life.  Indeed,  if  we  figure  the  average  span 
of  life,  the  school  claims  more  than  one  fourth 
of  the  individual  career.  Many  persons  con- 
tinue formal  school  work  into  the  third  dec- 
ade, while  many  give  a  score  and  a  half  of 

102 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     103 

years  in  making  educational  preparation  for 
the  remaining  twoscore  years  of  the  allotment. 
Beyond  this,  the  whole  educational  scheme 
involves  countless  millions  of  dollars.  Our 
bookkeeping  is  scarcely  rapid  enough  to  keep 
up  with  the  finances  of  the  system.  In  our 
own  country  it  really  seems  as  if  education 
had  become  a  primary  passion.  Our  school 
buildings  yearly  become  more  imposing  and 
more  costly.  Our  college  endowments  an- 
nually leap  to  more  generous  figures.  Our 
largest  philanthropies  seek  the  privilege  of 
enlarging  educational  opportunity.  It  thus 
requires  no  long  observation  to  convince  any 
thoughtful  man  that  our  educational  program, 
involving  every  young  life  in  the  nation  and 
ideally  every  young  life  on  the  planet,  is  of 
incalculable  meaning.  Each  morning  an  army 
of  many  millions,  ranging  from  wee  kinder- 
gartners  up  to  adult  postgraduates,  moves  to 
the  schoolroom  door.  The  whole  scene  is  as 
impressive  as  it  is  human.  The  question 
naturally  comes.  What  started  that  proces- 
sion? What  inspiration  keeps  it  moving 
through  the  years?  Is  there  one  Book  that 
leads  in  some  forceful  way  to  the  study  of 
many  books?  Does  the  Bible  have  any  sure 
relation  either  to  the  enthusiasm  or  to  the 
eflBciency  of  our  educational  life?  If  our 
friend  of  the  day's  program  could  discover  the 


104  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

intricate  influences  that  unite  in  sending  his 
children  to  the  school,  would  he  find  that  any 
large  credit  must  be  assigned  to  the  Book? 

The  aim  now  is  not  to  show  the  place  that 
the  Bible  has  had  in  the  curriculum  of  the 
world's  education;  nor  yet  is  it  to  show  the 
direct  effect  that  the  Bible  has  had  upon  the 
world's  instruction.  The  Bible  has  been  the 
supreme  text-book,  even  as  it  has  been  the 
supreme  force,  in  the  schools  of  nearly  two 
millenniums.  These  facts  have  been  well  set 
forth  in  many  treatises.  The  purpose  now  is 
simpler  and  more  meaningful :  to  trace  to  its 
main  sources  the  influence  which  the  great 
Book  has  had  upon  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  race. 

We  are  met  at  the  outset  by  the  singular 
fact  that  the  Bible  has  .little  to  say  specifically 
concerning  education.  Nowhere  in  its  pages 
do  we  read  the  command,  "Thou  shalt  found 
schools."  The  literalist  who  started  out  to 
find  a  biblical  order  for  education,  as  such, 
would  come  back  from  an  unrewarded  search. 
But  we  have  long  ago  discovered  that  the 
silence  of  the  Bible  does  not  constitute  a  com- 
mandment. There  are  some  things  that  are 
stronger  than  detailed  orders.  An  outer  law 
that  has  fought  an  inner  sanction  has  usually 
fared  badly  in  history.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  inner  sanction,  unenforced  by  any  objec- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     105 

tive  form  of  obligation,  has  won  some  big 
victories.  An  explicit  command  to  act  as  an 
immortal  is  not  so  powerful  as  the  implicit 
conviction  that  we  are  immortal.  It  is  safe 
to  declare  that  the  implications  of  Scripture 
are  often  as  deep  and  influential  as  its  expli- 
cations. If,  then,  the  flowers  of  knowledge 
bloom  not  by  command  in  the  fields  of  the 
Bible,  may  we  still  find  there  the  seeds  out 
of  which  such  flowers  inevitably  grow?  If  the 
school  building  is  not  definitely  prescribed,  as 
was  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  does  the  Book 
yield  in  a  deeper  sense  the  wood  and  stone 
and  mortar  by  which  the  building  must  surely 
rise?  Answers  to  these  figurative  questions 
will  go  far  toward  determining  the  relation 
of  the  Bible  to  education.  The  contention  now 
is  that  the  Bible  has  been  the  fountain  whence 
streams  of  intellectual  life  have  flowed,  and 
that,  minor  influences  being  freely  admitted, 
these  streams  may  be  traced  to  the  Scripture's 
implicit  doctrine  of  human  responsibility. 

In  discussing  the  bearing  of  the  Bible  on 
learning  much  has  been  made  of  the  example 
of  the  Bible's  mightiest  characters.  This  fact 
is  striking,  and  it  lends  itself  to  popular  treat- 
ment. The  average  man  takes  a  truth  more 
readily  when  it  is  offered  to  him  in  a  human 
setting.  Hence  it  may  be  granted  that  the 
spirit  of  the  Book  in  its  influence  on  educa- 


106  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

tion  has  been  supplemented  by  its  concrete 
examples.  In  the  patriarchal  era  the  majestic 
figure  is  that  of  Abraham.  Whatever  the 
critics  may  say  about  the  historicity  of  his 
person,  they  can  hardly  doubt  the  historicity 
of  the  intellectual  process  by  which  some 
"Father  of  the  Multitude"  must  have  reached 
the  creed  of  the  divine  unity  and  spirituality. 
We  could  not  expect,  of  course,  to  find  organ- 
ized education  in  the  primitive  days  of  reli- 
gious history.  But,  after  all,  education  is 
relative.  An  eminent  American  graduated 
from  Harvard  in  1836  when  he  was  sixteen 
years  of  age.  In  this  day  his  sixteen  years 
and  his  completed  course  of  study  would 
barely  admit  him  to  the  Freshman  class.  So 
Abraham^s  education  must  be  graded  by  the 
standard  of  his  dim  and  far  day.  Tradition 
represents  him  as  reaching  the  central  doc- 
trine of  the  Jewish,  Mohammedan,  and  Chris- 
tian faith  by  a  method  of  reasoning.  You 
may  say  of  his  physical  journey  that  he  went 
out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went,  but  you 
cannot  say  that  of  his  intellectual  journey. 
While  his  feet  pressed  an  unknown  way,  his 
mind  and  heart  traveled  straight  toward  the 
discovered  God.  If  the  best  educated  man  of 
a  period  is  he  who  sees  most  deeply  and  clearly 
into  its  essential  truths  and  problems,  then 
the  "Father  of  the  Faithful,"  whoever  he  was 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     107 

and  whenever  he  came,  was  the  supreme 
scholar  of  his  generation. 

As  the  life  of  the  chosen  people  reaches  more 
definite  form,  the  place  of  education  is  more 
plainly  seen.  Doubtless  most  men  would 
agree  that  Moses  was  the  arch  figure  of  the 
Old  Testament.  He  is  represented,  both  by 
the  Scripture  and  by  the  tradition  given 
among  the  Jewish  historians,  as  having  the 
best  mental  furnishing  of  his  day.  The  book 
of  the  Acts  says  of  him  that  he  "was  learned 
in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians."  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  records  that  Moses  had  the 
finest  teachers  in  Egypt,  and  that  the  choicest 
scholars  were  imported  from  Greece  and 
Assyria  to  instruct  the  adopted  prince  in  the 
arts  and  sciences  of  their  respective  countries. 
Perhaps  we  must  allow  something  for  the 
idealizing  habit  here ;  but  it  is  significant  that 
both  sacred  and  secular  history  unite  in  de- 
claring that  the  Lawgiver  was  learned. 

In  the  era  of  Prophecy  we  find  the  same 
development,  only  it  is  more  speedy.  Elijah 
may  have  been  the  crude  and  forceful  son  of 
mountain  and  rock,  but  his  successor  is  the 
product  of  one  of  the  numerous  "schools  of 
the  prophets."  Although  intellectual  training 
might  be  presumed  to  have  little  to  do  with 
the  stern  function  of  Old  Testament  prophesy- 
ing, the  "school"  arrived  quickly  and  began 


108  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

the  training  of  the  young  men.  Criticism  has 
not  attacked  the  view  that  the  book  of  Isaiah 
bears  marks  of  high  culture.  If  that  book  had 
two  authors,  the  ancient  world  is  entitled  to 
the  credit  of  a  second  scholar.  When  the 
radical  is  done  with  the  story  of  Daniel  we 
have  left  at  least  the  schoolroom  in  which  the 
youthful  prophet  gained  his  superior  wisdom. 
It  would  appear  that  the  examples  of  the 
worthies  of  the  Old  Testament  give  slight  en- 
couragement to  the  idea  that  any  type  of 
selection  or  any  mood  of  afflatus  may  not  be 
supplemented  by  trained  intellect  in  the  king- 
dom of  God. 

We  need  not  halt  long  with  the  like  lesson 
from  the  New  Testament.  Much  has  been 
made  of  the  fact  that  the  twelve  apostles  were 
uneducated  men.  Doubtless  we  often  do  their 
intellectual  life  scant  justice.  Desiring  to 
score  in  an  argument,  we  give  it  out  as  an 
evidence  of  the  divinity  of  the  faith  that  it 
conquered  in  spite  of  the  disciples'  lack  of 
education.  The  truth  is  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment does  not  warrant  the  application  to  the 
apostles  of  such  words  as  "illiterate."  Some 
of  them  wrote  books  that  have  moved  the  ages. 
But,  whatever  the  fact  be  here,  he  would  be 
wild  indeed  who  would  find  in  ignorance  any 
explanation  of  the  gospel's  victory.  Let  us 
remember,  moreover,  that,  when  the  "unlet- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     109 

tered"  Twelve  were  cramping  the  universal 
faith  into  a  local  religion,  the  corrector  of 
their  blunder  was  the  "lettered"  Paul.  In 
his  statement  of  experience  he  was  ever  ready 
to  say  that  he  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel, 
the  greatest  Je^vish  teacher  of  the  day.  After 
Christ  Paul  is  the  colossal  figure  of  the  New 
Testament;  and  there  are  those  who  would 
confidently  declare  him  the  greatest  man  who 
has  walked  the  earth  since  Calvary.  For  a 
review  of  his  education,  let  anyone  read  a 
standard  Life  of  the  Apostle.  We  thus  gather 
the  one  result  from  both  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament.  Moses  was  the  mightiest  person- 
ality of  the  one,  and  Paul  was  the  mightiest 
human  personality  of  the  other ;  and  both  were 
highly  educated.  The  signal  examples  of  the 
Bible  range  themselves  on  the  side  of  educa- 
tion. 

As  in  all  things  else,  so  in  the  relation  of 
the  Bible  to  the  intellectual  life  we  reach 
the  climax  only  when  we  come  to  Christ. 
Here,  too,  we  find  in  the  life  of  Christ  that 
same  element  of  paradox  that  we  often  find 
in  his  words.  That  saving  was  losing,  giving 
was  getting,  and  dying  was  living  were  ap- 
parently contradictory  statements  that  real 
life  proved  to  be  true.  Where  words  seemed 
to  fight  each  other,  the  deeper  facts  were  found 
to  live  in  peace.     So  Jesus  in  his  personal 


110  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

influence  was  ever  reaching  goals  of  which 
the  paths  did  not  give  promise.  This  is  seen 
peculiarly  in  his  relation  to  the  intellectual 
life.  He  left  no  manuscripts.  The  only  time 
he  is  represented  as  writing  was  when  he 
wrote  the  sentence  of  the  sinning  Avoman  on 
the  forgetful  sands  of  the  earth.  Yet  he  who 
wrote  no  books  has  filled  the  world  with  books. 
Something  in  him  quickly  evoked  Gospels  and 
Epistles  which  were  forerunners  of  a  mar- 
velous literature.  Even  this  moment  thou- 
sands of  pens  are  being  moved  by  him.  He 
wrote  no  books,  and  still  he  writes  books 
evermore. 

It  was  so  with  his  relation  to  the  schools. 
Men  tell  us  that  the  incarnation  imposed  a 
limitation  on  intellect — that  it  involved  a 
kenosis,  an  emptying  of  knowledge  even  as  of 
power.  Be  that  as  it  may,  our  human  ex- 
planations do  not  easily  reach  the  mystery  of 
his  influence  on  the  schools  of  the  world.  Did 
the  boy  Jesus  go  to  school  in  Nazareth  ?  Was 
his  mother  his  only  earthly  teacher?  Did  his 
neighbors  speak  literal  truth  in  the  question, 
"Whence  hath  this  man  wisdom,  having  never 
learned''?  The  silent  years  give  no  answer  to 
the  questions.  But  this  we  do  know :  He  who 
went  to  school  slightly  or  not  at  all  has  sent 
a  world  to  school.  He  who  founded  no  im- 
mediate institution  of  learning  has  dotted  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     111 

planet  with  colleges.  His  schoolroom  was 
itinerant  and  unroofed.  It  moved  quickly 
from  town  to  city,  from  capital  to  desert,  from 
mountain  to  seashore.  We  have  dignified,  it 
with  a  great  name.  The  school  of  Jesus,  whose 
plant  and  endowment  and  faculty  all  centered 
in  one  life,  is  named  "the  College  of  Apostles." 

He  said  to  them,  "Go,  teach."  They  went 
and  they  taught.  They  were  not  deliberate 
founders  of  schools.  But  the  heart  of  Jesus 
contained  schools,  and  they,  having  gotten 
their  hearts  from  him,  carried  schools  with 
them.  When  the  gospel  reached  England  and 
Germany,  education  reached  those  countries 
and  began  to  thrive.  The  vast  majority  of 
the  first  one  hundred  colleges  founded  in 
America  were  builded  by  the  followers  of  the 
Great  Teacher. 

Now,  this  unique  relation  of  Jesus  to  the 
educational  life  of  men  is  not  accidental. 
Subtle  as  are  the  laws  which  determine  it, 
those  laws  work  effectively.  They  are  elusive, 
but  once  in  a  while  we  glimpse  their  ways 
and  meanings.  The  New  Testament  seems  to 
feel  their  presence.  It  calls  Christ  a  Teacher. 
Forty-three  times  it  uses  his  name  in  connec- 
tion with  the  word  "teach"  in  its  various 
forms.  The  world  gets  the  same  impression. 
It  persists  in  calling  Jesus  the  Greatest 
Teacher.    It  must  note  the  schoolroom  phrases 


112  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

with  which  the  account  of  his  life  is  filled. 
The  prologue  of  his  wonderful  message  on 
the  Mount  illustrates  this.  "And  seeing  the 
multitudes,  he  went  up  into  a  mountain :  and 
when  he  was  set,  his  disciples  came  unto  him ; 
and  he  opened  his  mouth,  and  taught  them." 
The  posture  of  Jesus  was  that  of  the  teacher. 
His  audience  was  made  up  of  "disciples,'^  that 
is,  of  pupils.  He  "taught''  them.  All  this 
might  be  called  a  superficial  play  upon  mere 
words.  But  we  may  go  further  and  discover 
that  the  method  of  Jesus  was  the  method  of 
the  teacher.  He  put  his  effort  into  other  lives 
in  order  that  these  lives  might,  within  their 
various  limitations,  duplicate  his  own.  His 
work  was  largely  devoted  to  the  preparation 
of  a  select  few.  Often  he  left  hundreds  and 
thousands  that  he  might  be  alone  with  Twelve. 
He  poured  himself  into  his  disciples,  his 
scholars.  He  thus  did  what  every  true  teacher 
must  do :  He  committed  the  cause  of  his  life  to 
those  whom  he  schooled  into  faith  and  charac- 
ter and  power. 

Nor  did  the  teaching  method  halt  here.  The 
good  teacher  makes  the  things  of  the  earth 
serve  as  approaches  to  the  highest  develop- 
ments. This  Jesus  did  supremely.  Long 
before  men  made  "nature  study"  an  educa- 
tional fad,  Jesus  made  it  an  ethical  and 
spiritual  service.     He  pressed  flowers,  mus- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     113 

tard  seeds,  grapes,  wine,  thistles,  corn,  figs, 
into  the  lessons  of  his  roving  school.  He 
made  nature  study  so  effective  that  along  a 
path  of  lilies  men  walked  to  God.  When  it 
was  necessary  to  individualize  in  order  to  come 
to  this  high  result,  Jesus  took  up  that  burden 
of  teaching.  His  school,  like  all  other  schools 
since  its  day,  enrolled  "a  son  of  thunder." 
It  took  the  love  that  suffered  long  to 
make  John,  the  son  of  thunder  and  light- 
ning and  vaulting  ambition,  into  the  son  of 
tender  love.  It  took  the  patience  that  knows 
no  failure  to  change  the  shifting  sand  of 
Simon's  nature  into  the  rock  of  Peter's  char- 
acter. All  these  considerations  will  convince 
us  that  we  may  go  to  Christ  with  the  peda- 
gogical, as  well  as  with  the  religious  motive. 
We  do  not  wonder  that  a  man  should  have 
crept  to  him  in  the  darkness  and  should  have 
said,  "We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher." 

There  is  yet  another  side  of  the  subject  that 
calls  for  emphasis.  The  Bible  and  Jesus  give 
the  ideal  of  the  intellectual  life,  an  omniscient 
God.  The  God  who  is  perfect  in  character  is 
often  lifted  before  us.  We  hear  the  voice 
saying,  "Be  ye  holy ;  for  I  the  Lord  your  God 
am  holy."  Yet  we  interpret  the  call  narrowly. 
Christ  has  come  to  us  with  the  call  to  purity. 
To  the  attentive  he  comes  just  as  truly  with 
the  call  to  knowledge.     He  has  given  us  a 


114  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

gospel  for  the  body,  and  that  gospel  teaches 
that  drunkards  and  other  defilers  of  the  human 
temple  of  God  cannot  inherit  his  kingdom.  He 
has  given  us  a  gospel  for  the  spirit,  and  that 
gospel  commands  that  the  inmost  realm  of  life 
be  given  to  his  sway.  He  has  likewise  given 
us  a  gospel  of  the  mind,  and  that  gospel  cannot 
be  omitted  from  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of 
Christ.  The  God  revealed  in  Christ  knows  all 
things.  He  counts  the  hairs  of  our  heads.  He 
marks  the  petals  of  the  flowers.  He  notes 
the  fall  of  the  sparrows.  He  is  all-knowing 
and  all- wise. 

Even  though  the  ideal  be  a  staggering  one, 
we  are  still  told  to  be  like  God.  Some  day 
we  shall  appreciate  more  the  duty  that  speaks 
to  us  in  Jesus's  revelation  of  an  omniscient 
God.  As  yet  we  hardly  dare  press  to  its  full 
meaning  the  call  implied  in  that  revelation. 
We  have  said  that  the  man  who  neglects  and 
stunts  and  poisons  his  body  is  a  sinner.  We 
have  said  that  the  man  who  dwarfs  and  re- 
presses his  spirit  is  a  sinner.  Are  we  ready 
to  say  that  the  man  who  gives  his  mind  no 
chance,  the  man  who  fails  to  move  on  to  the 
ideal  of  an  omniscient  God,  is  likewise  a 
sinner?  Is  God's  perfect  spirit  a  goal  for  his 
children,  and  is  God's  perfect  mind  removed 
from  our  vision  of  duty?  If  we  are  to  start 
on  the  endless  march  that  leads  to  the  purity 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     115 

of  God,  are  we  freed  from  the  obligation  of 
starting  on  the  endless  march  that  leads  to 
his  knowledge?  We  may  shrink  from  the  con- 
clusion that  is  here  involved;  and  our  shrink- 
ing may  be  only  an  added  evidence  that  we 
have  omitted  one  element  from  the  divine 
ideal. 

Just  here  we  are  struck  with  the  conscious- 
ness that  we  shall  need  some  great  dynamic, 
if  we  are  ever  to  start  toward  this  unspeak- 
able goal.  Evidently  we  have  not  reached  the 
last  thing  in  Christ's  relation  to  education. 
Confucius  was  a  great  teacher,  but  his  system 
has  not  produced  schools.  Mohammed  was  a 
great  teacher,  but  his  system  has  left  his 
followers  walloTving  in  ignorance.  Though 
Mohammedanism  has  proclaimed  an  omnis- 
cient God,  somehow  that  beacon  on  the  infinite 
height  has  not  coaxed  the  Turk  on  to  its  shin- 
ing. Mohammedanism  has  offered  the  ideal, 
but  it  has  lacked  the  power.  On  the  contrary 
the  system  of  Jesus  seems  to  have  had  a  genius 
for  diffusing  education.  It  has  been  a  vast 
normal  school.  The  purer  and  freer  and  more 
spiritual  its  form,  the  mightier  has  it  been  as 
an  educational  force.  If  we  list  the  nations 
of  the  earth  in  classes  with  reference  to 
literacy  and  illiteracy,  we  shall  find  that  the 
farther  the  nations  are  from  the  Bible,  the 
more  dense  is  their  ignorance.    We  shall  find, 


116  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

too,  that  where  the  people  are  the  freest  in 
their  relation  to  the  Bible,  there  the  ignorance 
is  least.  Plainly  the  Bible  with  its  crowning 
revelation  in  Christ  does  furnish  something  of 
a  dynamic  toward  education.  The  school  has 
been  the  inevitable  companion  of  the  church. 
This  is  because  the  church,  in  addition  to 
giving  a  list  of  inspiring  examples,  and  in 
addition  to  lifting  up  the  uttermost  ideal,  has 
also  emphasized  an  obligation  under  the 
leadership  of  the  ever-present  Spirit.  It  re- 
mains to  show  the  nature  of  the  obligation 
which  the  Spirit  has  enforced  with  reference 
to  knowledge.  Perhaps  this  can  be  done  more 
clearly  by  taking  the  attitude  of  the  Scrip- 
tures toward  slavery  as  illustrating  their  atti- 
tude toward  ignorance. 

When  Jesus  faced  his  audiences  he  looked 
upon  men  who  were  in  bondage  as  well  as 
upon  men  who  were  in  ignorance.  It  is  fre- 
quently said  that  Christ  did  not  attack  slavery. 
In  the  days  before  the  war  the  biblical  literal- 
ist,  who  believed  in  freedom,  had  a  hard  time 
with  his  Bible.  He  found  that  the  Bible  did 
not  condemn  slavery,  but  that  the  Bible  did 
give  concerning  it  certain  regulations.  The 
pro-slavery  orators  made  good  use  of  the  letter 
to  Philemon.  The  people  who  believed  in 
human  liberty,  and  who  likewise  believed  in 
a  mechanical  and  verbal  theory  of  biblical  in- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     117 

spiration,  passed  through  intellectual  agony 
in  the  period  of  anti-slavery  agitation.  If 
human  bondage  was  the  sum  of  all  villainies, 
why  did  not  Jesus  condemn  it  with  unsparing 
invective?  Why  did  not  the  apostles  enter 
upon  an  immediate  crusade  for  its  downfall? 

The  answer  is  that  Christ  in  the  deepest 
way  did  condemn  slavery,  and  that  the  apostles 
in  the  realest  way  did  begin  their  crusade. 
They  gathered  no  visible  army,  and  they  en- 
forced no  written  statute,  but  Christ  stated 
and  his  followers  promulgated  a  conception 
of  humanity  that  prophesied  the  melting  of 
all  chains.  Usually  the  claim  is  that  the 
Golden  Kule  was  the  primary  foe  of  slavery, 
but  the  Golden  Eule  is  of  little  force,  apart 
from  that  doctrine  of  human  personality  that 
pervades  the  New  Testament.  Give  that  doc- 
trine power,  and  it  would  refuse  to  live  in  the 
same  world  with  slavery.  That  doctrine, 
under  a  Captain,  was  a  delivering  army.  That 
doctrine,  under  a  King,  was  an  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  The  Golden  Rule  had  been 
given  in  negative  form  by  Confucius,  and  it 
went  to  sleep  in  his  maxims.  That  rule  had 
been  uttered  negatively  by  Plato,  but  it  nestled 
quietly  in  his  poetry.  Hillel  approached  the 
positive  statement  of  the  rule,  but  he  does  not 
get  credit  for  being  its  author.  The  glory  of 
a  truth  lies  with  the  one  who  gives  it  power. 


118  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Jesus  made  the  Golden  Kule  leap  to  its  feet. 
He  turned  it  into  a  most  effective  traveler. 
It  praised  God  on  its  wide  journeys.  It  began 
to  work  wonders. 

That  work  was  slow,  but  it  was  both  sure 
and  thorough.  The  Kule  had  power  behind  its 
saying.  At  length  the  Spirit  carried  that 
gracious  weapon  over  the  seas  and  laid  it  in 
the  hearts  of  Clarkson  and  Wilberf orce.  Soon 
the  English  flag  floated  over  freemen  every- 
where. Again  the  Spirit  carried  the  doctrine 
over  other  seas  and  lodged  it  in  the  hearts  of 
Love  joy,  Phillips,  and  Garrison.  Directly 
four  million  sable  faces  were  glowing  with  the 
light  of  liberty.  Jesus  had  said,  "If  the  Son 
therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free 
indeed."  The  word  had  essentially  a  spiritual 
meaning,  but  it  was  worked  out,  also,  in  a 
splendid  literalness.  The  Son  made  men  free, 
not  primarily  by  the  force  of  law,  nor  yet 
primarily  by  the  violence  of  armies,  but  rather 
by  the  conquest  of  disposition.  The  honor  of 
the  victory  is  with  the  Bible  theory  of  human- 
ity, made  strong  with  the  power  of  Christ. 

Now  what  the  truth  of  the  Bible  did  in 
tearing  down  slavery,  it  is  continually  doing 
in  routing  ignorance.  The  connection  is 
subtle,  but  it  is  vitally  real.  The  doctrine  of 
personal  responsibility  is  atmospheric  in  the 
Bible.    It  is  equally  comprehensive.    Men  are 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     119 

held  responsible  for  their  bodies.  Drunken- 
ness, adultery,  and  all  forms  of  sensuality  are 
condemned.  This  is  at  the  bottom  of  life.  But 
at  the  top  of  life  firmer  stress  is  placed.  The 
spirit  of  man  is  made  a  field  of  reckoning. 
The  divine  dominion  over  motive  is  strongly 
asserted.  And  that  comprehensive  responsi- 
bility claims  the  mind.  The  first  great  com- 
mandment of  the  new  dispensation  is  that  we 
must  "love  God  with  all  the  strength,  with 
all  the  soul,  with  all  the  mind/^  Men  may 
differ  about  the  precise  meaning  of  the  mind's 
love  for  the  Lord,  but  the  Christian  sense  of 
duty  has  asserted  it  in  strange  fashions. 
From  vast  revivals  young  men  and  women  have 
gone  forward  intellectually  and  have  sought 
the  higher  education.  Conversion  has  set  free 
their  intellects  and  has  made  them  feel  the 
duty  of  intellectual  development.  The  pressure 
of  the  Christian  ideal  has  been  on  them.  They 
have  answered  the  call  of  the  God  who  is 
infinitely  good,  and  they  must  now  answer  the 
call  of  the  God  who  is  infinitely  wise.  An 
elusive  intellectual  law  is  written  sure  and 
large  in  the  code  of  the  Great  Kingdom.  It  is 
as  certainly  a  commandment  of  God  as  if  it 
had  been  thundered  among  the  crags  and 
lightnings  of  a  new  Sinai. 

The  conviction  of  the  church  at  this  point 
has  not  always  come  to  definition;  nor  has  it 


120  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

always  risen  even  to  consciousness.  For  all 
that,  it  has  risen  to  practical  life  and  has 
struggled  always  for  outward  expression. 
Feeling  that  the  empire  of  God  is  over  all  of 
life,  man  must  submit  his  mind  to  the  divine 
rule.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  man  who  is 
intellectually  lazy,  as  well  as  the  man  who  is 
intellectually  dishonest,  is  a  sinner.  This 
statement  may  shock  those  who  have  a  surplus 
of  caution,  but  these  may  reassure  themselves 
with  the  conviction  that  any  theory  may  be 
fearlessly  accepted,  if  it  brings  us  face  to  face 
with  God  at  any  point  of  our  total  life.  The 
failure  to  follow  this  biblical  idea  has  brought 
a  penalty  always.  No  denomination  that  has 
fought  or  slurred  education  has  led  a  large 
and  victorious  life;  on  the  contrary  it  has  in- 
variably become  one  of  the  fading  and  dwin- 
dling forces  of  God's  work.  The  God  of  wisdom 
is  evermore  against  the  promoters  of  igno- 
rance. So  do  we  find  that,  by  the  examples  of 
its  greatest  characters,  by  the  life  of  its 
Greatest  Teacher  and  its  ruling  Lord,  by  the 
vision  of  its  supreme  ideal,  by  the  assertion 
of  its  inclusive  theory  of  consecration,  and  by 
the  divine  dynamic  which  it  brings  to  bear 
upon  the  mind,  the  Bible  has  become  the 
steadfast  friend  of  proper  education.  It  has 
opened  the  doors  of  countless  schools  and  has 
bidden  the  children  of  men  to  enter  the  portals 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     121 

of  learning  with  the  assurance  that  all  truth 
is  of  God. 

The  Bible  renders  education  the  service  of 
inspiration,  and  it  renders  it  the  service  of 
proper  restraint.  When  any  one  faculty  of 
human  life  becomes  a  monarch  it  always  makes 
for  trouble.  Zeal  without  knowledge  tends  to 
breakage;  knowledge  without  zeal  tends  to 
waste.  The  Bible  does  not  make  intellect  all. 
Man  has  mind,  and  he  must  use  that.  Man 
has  sensibility,  and  he  must  use  that.  Man 
has  will,  and  he  must  use  that.  Man  must 
get  the  truth  out  of  his  integral  self  rather 
than  out  of  his  fractional  self.  The  man  who 
does  not  use  his  heart  and  will  in  the  gaining 
of  truth  is  just  as  faithless  as  is  the  man  who 
will  not  use  his  mind.  Without  attempting  to 
use  psychological  terms  with  exactness,  we 
may  say  that  Jesus  brought  in  the  reign  of 
the  practical  intellect,  which  gets  truth  from 
all  there  is  of  man.  Even  as  truth  comes  not 
from  the  naked  will  of  God,  nor  yet  out  of  his 
cold  thought,  but  rather  out  of  the  full  nature 
of  the  Infinite,  so  truth  finds  man,  not  at  some 
one  point  of  his  being,  but  in  the  glowing 
center  of  his  whole  life. 

We  may  assert,  also,  that  the  Bible  saves 
education  from  frigidity.  Tennyson  speaks  of 
"the  freezing  reason's  colder  part.''  We  all 
know  the  meaning  of  the  phrase.    Jesus  put 


122  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

into  the  search  for  truth  the  mood  of  humility. 
The  method  of  learning  was  obedience.  Obedi- 
ence is  the  organ  of  intellectual  vision  as  well 
as  of  spiritual  vision.  The  method  of  Jesus 
was  not  merely  for  the  spiritual  life,  as  men 
speak  in  their  fragmentary  way;  it  was  a 
universal  method.  It  takes  humility  to  make 
the  beginnings  of  a  scholar,  and  weariness  and 
shame  of  ignorance,  and  faith  in  an  intel- 
lectual empire,  and  a  high  trust  that  the  mind 
is  made  for  truth,  and  the  truth  for  mind. 
Ere  we  have  done,  we  have  a  huge  creed 
wrapped  up  in  our  intellectual  processes.  But 
the  creed  has  been  saved  from  its  cold  pride. 
The  Bible  says  in  one  of  its  marginal  readings, 
"Knowledge  puffeth  up;  love  buildeth  up." 
Knowledge  alone  may  be  swollen  with  pride, 
and  the  higher  demand  of  the  Bible  would 
save  from  that  disaster.  This  gives  us  the 
clue  to  more  than  one  biblical  sentence.  There 
is  a  "science  falsely  so  called."  There  is  a 
sense  in  which  "not  many  wise  after  the  flesh 
are  called."  These  implied  warnings  are  not 
the  cries  of  prejudice.  They  stand  for  the 
effort  to  touch  learning  with  humility,  which 
alone  can  save  it  from  being  distant  and  icy. 

The  good  Book  rescues  education  from  a 
selfish  inaction.  There  was  a  living  and  serv- 
ing element  in  Jesus's  relation  to  the  intel- 
lectual life.    He  did  not  deal  in  barren  meta- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  EDUCATION     123 

physics  or  in  helpless  abstractions.  His  truth 
went  to  work.  He  fastened  it  to  life's  burdens, 
and  they  were  lifted.  He  dropped  it  amid 
life's  problems,  and  they  were  solved.  He  cast 
it  against  life's  temptations,  and  they  were 
defeated.  He  attached  it  to  life's  duties,  and 
they  were  fulfilled.  He  sought  those  truths 
with  which  men  had  to  dwell.  He  never  at- 
tempted to  set  forth  the  essential  mystery  of 
things.  He  was  no  dealer  in  an  intellectual 
cure-all.  He  spoke  with  authority  and  yet 
with  reverent  limitation.  There  was  a  great 
reserve  in  his  explanations.  Yet  in  the  realm 
where  men  must  live  their  present  lives,  Jesus 
gave  enough  truth  to  keep  men  busy  all  their 
days.  Here  again  comes  in  the  question  of 
dynamic.  Men  sometimes  prate  about  their 
^4ove  of  truth."  The  intellectual  life,  like  the 
religious  life,  may  be  guilty  of  cant.  It  takes 
more  than  an  open  mind  to  get  the  truth;  it 
takes  a  working  mind.  Truth  does  not  come 
to  the  passive  man  by  way  of  transfer.  One 
teaching  of  the  parable  of  the  virgins  is  that, 
while  the  coarser  goods  of  life  may  be  trans- 
ferred, the  finer  goods  of  life  must  be  won  by 
spiritual  effort.  It  takes  dynamic  to  secure 
a  real  intellect.  Perception  may  see  a  truth, 
but  only  inward  power  can  use  the  truth. 
Jesus  conferred  that  power.  He  gave  us  the 
truth  in  the  doctrine  about  God.    He  gave  us 


124  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

the  way  in  the  spirit  of  obedience.  He  gave 
us  the  life  in  the  willingness  to  make  the  truth 
the  servant  of  the  world  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 
This  leads  us  to  the  biblical  idea  of  conse- 
crated intellect.  As  we  have  often  failed  to 
indicate  the  sin  of  needless  ignorance,  so  have 
we  failed  to  point  out  the  sin  of  an  unconse- 
crated  mind.  All  truth  can  be  dedicated  to 
Christ.  His  great  call  to-day  is  for  more  men 
with  the  highest  culture  placed  under  the 
thrall  of  his  grace  and  under  the  guiding 
power  of  the  Spirit  whom  he  sends — more 
Luthers  from  Wittenberg,  more  Wesleys  from 
Oxford,  more  Pauls  from  Gamaliel's  school; 
more  men  from  all  our  modern  seats  of  learn- 
ing who  will  know  that  gifts  of  learning  can 
be  placed  at  the  service  of  the  King  and  that 
all  science  and  philosophy  and  literature  may 
be  placed  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross.  In  the 
coming  day  of  the  Christian  intellect 

Mind  and  heart,  according  well 
May  make  one  music  as  before. 
But  vaster. 


CHAPTER    V 

The  Bible  and  Work 

The  frank  purpose  of  the  present  lecture  is 
to  discuss  the  relation  of  the  Bible  to  the  moral 
and  spiritual  aspects  of  work.  The  aim  is  not 
a  study  in  economics.  Without  doubt  the 
Bible  stands  for  justice;  and  without  doubt, 
also,  the  intent  of  the  Bible  is  to  make  just 
men.  But  the  great  Book  does  not  give  an 
infallible  table  of  wages;  neither  does  it  offer 
any  sure  rules  whereby  we  can  determine  the 
working  value  of  any  particular  individual. 
It  declares  that  "the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire,"  and  it  leaves  the  details  to  be  wrought 
out  by  men  whom  it  summons  to  the  spirit  of 
justice  and  love.  Interested  as  we  may  be  in 
the  economic  problems  of  our  day,  we  must 
still  rejoice  that  the  Bible  does  not  surrender 
its  work  of  inspiration  in  an  effort  at  mechan- 
ical guidance.  The  wage  scale  must  neces- 
sarily vary  with  the  conditions  of  living ;  and, 
therefore,  a  textbook  of  money  wages  would 
have  made  a  cumbersome  volume  with  most 
of  its  pages  as  lifeless  as  the  Book  of  the 
Dead.    The  very  suggestion  ends  in  ridiculous- 

125 


126  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

ness.  The  effort  of  the  Bible  is  not  to  give 
directions  for  working  machines,  but  to  give 
motives  to  working  men.  It  is  not  a  task- 
master, but  a  task-inspirer. 

True  toil  of  whatever  sort  is  in  need  of 
inspiration.  It  must  go  by  system  and  by 
schedule,  and  the  element  of  monotony  makes 
itself  felt.  The  man  leaves  his  home  six  morn- 
ings of  the  week  and  takes  up  his  accustomed 
task.  The  bell  calls  him  to  work  at  an  ap- 
pointed hour,  and  it  dismisses  him  by  the 
demand  of  the  clock.  The  husband  goes  to 
the  store  or  office  or  factory  to  do  the  same 
things  again  and  ever  again,  while  the  wife 
goes  about  the  household  duties  that  have  en- 
grossed her  on  thousands  of  previous  days. 
One  of  the  victories  of  life  is  to  be  a  worker 
and  not  to  be  a  drudge.  We  have  all  known 
people  who  have  not  won  that  victory.  Their 
work  is  a  grim  necessity.  It  is  not  acquainted 
with  poetry  or  with  music.  When  the  idealist 
speaks  of  the  man  who  sings  at  his  toil,  they 
sneer  at  his  sentimentalism  or  they  doubt  his 
sincerity.  Work  is  a  ceaseless  grind;  it  is  a 
dreary  round;  it  is  a  hard  compulsion.  The 
poet  who  wields  a  pen  may  tell  the  man  who 
wields  a  pick  that  work  is  joy  and  refreshment 
and  liberty,  but  the  sour  toiler  will  regard  his 
teacher  as  a  condescending  comforter.  The 
complaint  of  many  people  is  not  simply  that 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  127 

they  must  make  bricks  without  straw,  but  that 
they  must  make  bricks  at  all.  In  their  vocabu- 
lary pleasure  contrasts  with  labor  because 
labor  itself  is  pain.  They  are  weary  in  their 
work  and  weary  of  their  work.  The  only  ideal 
for  this  sort  of  laborer  is  that  he  may  labor  so 
successfully  as  to  be  able  some  day  to  get  on 
without  labor.     This  man  is  the  drudge. 

Oddly  enough,  he  has  had  his  theological 
partners.  There  have  been  Bible  students  who 
have  held  that  all  work  is  a  penalty  of  the 
Fall.  They  say  that  when  God  said  to  Adam, 
"In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  thou  shalt  eat 
bread,"  he  entered  toil  among  the  punish- 
ments of  life.  Undoubtedly  sin  adds  to  the 
hardship  of  work,  especially  if  the  sin  be  the 
sin  of  a  wrong  attitude.  Thorns  and  thistles 
do  prosper  more  around  the  broken  gate  of 
the  sluggard.  The  earnest  expectation  of  a 
groaning  and  travailing  creation  does  wait  for 
the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God.  Discontent 
puts  its  evil  reflex  on  the  muscles.  The  re- 
bellious worker  is  ever  the  tired  worker.  But 
even  the  literal  story  of  Eden  does  not  give  the 
ideal  of  worklessness.  Adam  had  been  placed 
in  the  garden  "to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it." 
Wherever  God  places  the  man,  he  places  the 
task  for  the  man.  Any  other  conception  of 
life  is  unworthy  and  utterly  irreligious.  A 
silly  theology  that  puts  a  premium  on  idle- 


128  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

ness  is  not  born  of  the  God  that  "worketh 
hitherto."  Still  the  view  that  work  is  a  curse 
persists  even  after  the  theory  that  encouraged 
the  view  has  gone  to  the  discard.  The  sancti- 
fied escape  the  fret  of  work,  but  they  do  not 
escape  its  fact.  The  Perfect  Life,  as  we  shall 
later  see,  was  the  life  of  a  Worker. 

Admitting,  as  we  all  must,  that  work  is 
sometimes  tragic  because  it  lacks  its  proper 
outer  reward,  we  may  still  contend  that  often 
its  deepest  tragedy  is  a  wrong  attitude  of 
spirit.  Doubtless  much  of  this  comes  from 
maladjustment.  Some  idealists  believe  that 
if  every  man  were  given  his  own  task,  every 
man  would  be  happy  at  that  task.  Kipling  so 
states  it  in  the  "L'Envoi"  of  "The  Seven 
Seas."  He  sees  the  good  time  when  there 
shall  be  an  adjustment  between  man  and  his 
task.  The  lower  motives  for  work  shall  all 
be  done  away,  and  the  one  satisfying  motive 
shall  abide. 

And  only  the  Master  shall  praise  us,  and  only  the  Master 

shall  blame, 
And  no  one  shall  work  for  money,  and  no  one  shall 

work  for  fame, 
But  each  for  the  joy  of  the  working,  and  each  in  his 

separate  star. 
Shall  draw  the  thing  as  he  sees  it,  for  the  God  of  things 

as  they  are. 

Ideal  as  this  is,  it  gets  a  response  from  us  all. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  129 

Besides  there  are  some  foretokens  of  this  age 
of  joyful  toil.  Usually  these  are  seen  most 
clearly  in  work  that  has  a  relation  to  beauty. 
The  woman  works  cheerfully  at  her  fine  em- 
broidery, and  she  works  just  as  cheerfully 
over  the  flowers  in  her  garden.  With  men 
the  form  of  toil  that  stands  for  genuine 
achievement  often  becomes  not  only  a  pleasure 
but  a  veritable  passion.  Where  a  spiritual 
motive  allures,  work  frequently  becomes  the 
gladness  of  life.  Agassiz  declined  to  accept 
the  remunerative  call  to  lecture  by  saying,  "I 
am  only  a  teacher.  I  cannot  afford  to  make 
money.''  Wesley  poured  back  into  his  work 
all  the  results  of  his  work  and  died  a  poor  man 
whereas  he  might  have  become  rich.  In 
America  college  professors  have  been  known 
to  save  their  meager  salaries  in  order  that 
they  might  return  their  slight  estates  to  endow 
more  fully  the  institutions  for  which  they 
labored.  They  received  from  their  work  so 
that  they  could  give  back  to  their  work. 

The  more  we  study  cases  of  this  fine  sort, 
the  more  will  we  be  impressed  that  the  workers 
labored  under  the  biblical  sense  of  life.  The 
men  just  mentioned  were  all  profound  be- 
lievers in  God,  and  they  lived  their  lives  as 
under  his  eye.  Hence  they  saw  their  portion 
of  work  as  a  part  of  the  infinite  whole  that 
makes  for  the  kingdom  of  God.     There  is  a 


130  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

story  of  a  workingman  who,  standing  on  the 
street  opposite  the  Cathedral  of  Cologne,  was 
overheard  saying,  "Didn't  we  do  a  fine  job 
over  there?"  Turning  about,  the  listener  saw 
a  rough  hand  pointing  at  the  wonderful 
cathedral.  "What  did  you  do?''  he  asked  the 
man.  The  reply  was,  "I  mixed  the  mortar  for 
several  years."  The  tale  was  told  by  the 
thoughtless  as  being  humorous.  It  is,  how- 
ever, serious  and  beautiful.  That  workman 
had  gotten  the  vision  of  himself  as  a  partner 
in  a  plan  that  covered  centuries  of  grand  toil. 
He  was  a  helper  of  God  in  the  fashioning  of 
his  temple.  In  reality  he  had  joined  the  com- 
pany of  Hiram  and  of  Solomon.  Now  all 
honest  work  must  have  a  direction  that  is 
both  long  and  high.  It  reaches  down  into  the 
years  of  men.  It  reaches  upward  into  the 
heart  of  God.  Precisely  this  idealism  is 
needed  in  order  that  toil  may  be  redeemed 
from  its  drudgery.  George  Eliot  gives  us  a 
striking  illustration  of  it  in  her  tribute  to 
Stradivari,  the  maker  of  violins.  This  im- 
mortal mechanic  is  said  to  have  had  a  rever- 
ence for  his  labor.  He  felt  that,  whereas  God 
gave  men  skill  to  play,  God  depended  on 
Stradivari  to  furnish  the  instruments.  He 
was  the  partner  of  the  Most  High.  God  had 
chosen  Stradivari  as  a  helper.  Hence  he 
could  say, 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  131 

God  be  praised, 
Antonio  Stradivari  has  an  eye 
That  winces  at  false  work  and  loves  the  true, 
With  hand  and  arm  that  play  upon  the  tool 
As  willingly  as  any  singing  bird 
Sets  him  to  sing  his  morning  roundelay, 
Because  he  likes  to  sing  and  likes  the  song. 

We  may  not  all  have  this  attitude  toward  our 
work,  but  we  are  all  idealists  enough  to  wish 
that  we  felt  just  that  way.  The  singing  work- 
man is  not  altogether  a  figment  of  the  imag- 
ination ;  neither  is  his  spirit  impossible  in  the 
day  that  now  is.  The  men  who  regard  work 
as  a  blessing,  and  not  as  a  penalty  and  a  curse, 
are  found  in  many  trades  and  professions. 
They  are  the  forerunners  of  the  Eden  life. 
Certainly  the  main  teaching  of  the  Bible,  that 
labor  is  designed  to  aid  in  the  bringing  in  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  must  give  to  the  honest 
laborers  in  every  realm  an  exalted  joy. 

This  primary  consideration  is  joined  by  the 
human  examples  of  the  Bible.  We  find  in  its 
pages  a  procession  of  workers,  and  from  this 
procession  God  selects  many  of  his  chosen 
leaders.  Moses  was  tending  his  flock  on  the 
hillside  when  the  voice  of  the  Lord  summoned 
him  to  his  manifold  leadership.  Saul  was 
seeking  his  father's  cattle  when  he  found  the 
kingdom  of  which  he  was  to  be  king.  David 
was  busy  in  the  sheepfold  when  the  prophet 
called  him  to  his  work  as  warrior  and  mon- 


132  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

arch.  Ruth  was  gleaning  in  the  fields,  in  her 
pathetic  effort  to  care  for  her  widowed 
mother-in-law  and  herself,  when  she  found  her 
way  into  happiness  and  into  the  ancestry  of 
our  Lord.  Gideon  was  beating  out  wheat  in 
the  wine  press  when  he  was  drafted  for  the 
campaign  that  was  to  break  the  power  of  the 
Midianites.  Elisha  was  plowing  with  twelve 
yoke  of  oxen  when  the  mantle  of  Elijah  was 
cast  over  his  shoulders.  Nehemiah  was  serv- 
ing as  cupbearer  to  the  king  when  he  evoked 
from  Artaxerxes  the  permission  to  return  and 
rebuild  the  walls  of  his  beloved  city.  Amos 
was  among  the  herdsmen  of  Tekoa  when  the 
word  of  God  took  him  captive  and  sent  him  to 
his  prophetic  career.  These  are  the  instances 
in  the  Old  Testament  where  mention  is  made 
of  the  form  of  toil  from  which  God  called  men 
to  some  spiritual  service.  Without  doubt  the 
full  record  would  show  that  other  signal 
servants  received  their  commissions  while  they 
were  faithfully  performing  their  duties  on 
threshing  floors,  out  in  the  fields,  and  within 
counting-rooms. 

The  New  Testament  is  less  specific  in  its 
descriptions,  but  it  often  gives  us  the  like  hint. 
Matthew  was  at  the  seat  of  custom  when  he 
was  invited  into  the  fellowship  of  the  dis- 
ciples that  he  might  tell  men  of  the  eternal 
exchange.     James  and  John  were  engaged  in 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  133 

their  occupation  as  fishermen  when  they 
heard  the  voice  on  the  shore  and  pulled  their 
boat  over  the  blue  waves  that  they  might  be- 
come fishers  of  men.  The  shepherds  were  in 
faithful  watch  over  their  flocks  by  night  when 
they  heard  the  evangel  of  song  and  were 
startled  by  the  message  of  peace.  The  illus- 
trations make  us  feel  that  the  favorite  meeting 
place  of  God  with  man  is  the  meeting  place  of 
man  with  his  work.  A  motto  says  that  "the 
best  reward  of  good  work  is  more  good  work 
to  do.''  The  providence  of  God  upholds  the 
motto.  The  Bible  shows  a  preference  for  the 
workers  as  against  the  shirks.  It  puts  the 
premium  on  industry,  whether  the  type  of  toil 
be  manual  or  spiritual. 

Here,  as  in  all  other  themes  of  real  life,  we 
come  to  Christ  for  our  highest  teaching  and 
our  best  example.  We  have  noted  elsewhere 
that  he  made  the  home  the  illustration  of  our 
relations  with  God;  and  we  now  note  that  he 
made  the  common  work  of  earth  the  illustra- 
tion of  our  responsibility  for  service  to  God. 
This  he  did  so  often  and  so  urgently  that  we 
are  driven  to  feel  that  work  was  not  only  the 
form  of  illustration  but  also  the  form  of 
service  itself.  How  many  parables  did  he 
gain  from  the  ways  of  toil?  He  would  say, 
"The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto — ,''  and 
straightway  his  hearers'  minds  were  sent  to 


134  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

the  places  where  men  wrought  for  their  daily 
bread.  In  most  places  the  blanks  can  be  sup- 
plied by  some  form  of  employment.  "The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto — "  a  merchant 
and  his  pearls ;  a  sower  and  his  field ;  a  woman 
and  her  leaven;  a  fisherman  and  his  net;  a 
husbandman  and  his  vineyard;  a  merchant 
traveler  and  the  intrusted  talents.  Where  his 
words  were  used  as  deft  and  quick  illustra- 
tions rather  than  as  lengthy  and  formal  para- 
bles, he  gathered  his  material  from  the  realms 
of  toil.  The  builder  and  the  house;  the 
shepherd  and  the  sheep;  the  axman  and  the 
tree;  the  tailor  and  the  cloth;  the  housewife 
and  the  coin;  the  rich  man  and  his  steward; 
the  woman  and  her  grinding;  the  man  and  his 
plowing ;  the  watchman  and  his  vigil ;  the  hus- 
bandman and  the  vine;  all  these  entered  into 
his  speech  as  showing  what  God  would  expect 
of  men.  Here  we  have  almost  a  cyclopedia 
of  labors.  Inasmuch  as  Jesus  commended  the 
qualities  shown  in  these  various  phases  of 
service,  we  are  allowed  to  think  that  he  re- 
garded the  legitimate  occupations  of  everyday 
life  as  both  representing  and  fulfilling  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Nor  will  reverent  thought 
be  satisfied  with  any  less  comprehensive  view. 
There  would  be  a  dread  of  living  if  we  were 
made  to  feel  that  the  work  which  we  must  do, 
both  to  meet  our  own  sense  of  self-respect  and 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  135 

to  provide  for  the  needs  of  ourselves  and  our 
beloved,  was  either  in  opposition  to  the  grace 
of  God  or  stood  for  neutral  territory  between 
the  realms  of  good  and  evil.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  saves  us  from  that  practical  atheism. 
He  allows  every  honest  man  to  take  the  oft- 
repeated  phrase,  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like  unto — ,"  and  to  complete  a  portion  of  its 
meaning  from  his  own  form  of  labor.  If  a 
man  is  engaged  in  any  task  that  makes  sacri- 
lege and  blasphemy  when  it  is  used  to  fill 
out  the  sentence,  then  let  that  man  look  well 
to  his  own  heart  and  life.  Every  man's  work 
should  serve  as  a  parable  of  Christ. 

But  Jesus  was  not  simply  the  doctrinaire 
of  toil;  he  was  its  exemplar.  The  emphasis 
here  is  usually  placed  upon  the  fact  that  Christ 
was  a  carpenter.  He  transformed  crude 
materials  into  useful  tools.  An  overdone 
stress  on  this  point  is  itself  a  confession  that 
manual  toil  needs  an  apologist!  The  signifi- 
cant thing  is  that  such  a  stress  is  wholly 
absent  from  the  speech  and  attitude  of  Jesus. 
With  him  carpentry  seems  to  have  been  a 
natural  part  of  life.  He  never  refers  to  it  as 
something  that  he  had  outgrown.  His  back- 
ward look  toward  the  occupation  of  his  youth 
betrays  no  condescension,  like  to  that  occa- 
sionally seen  in  so-called  self-made  men  I 
After  he  had  left  the  carpenter's  bench  he 


136  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

said,  "I  work."  When  he  saw  the  night  clos- 
ing down  about  him,  the  brevity  of  the  working 
day  became  an  incentive  to  more  work,  and 
he  said,  "I  must  work."  Even  in  the  agony 
we  can  catch  the  exultation  of  the  cry,  "I 
have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest  me 
to  do."  It  was  his  meat  to  finish  his  "work." 
Jesus  did  the  appointed  task  for  each  period 
of  his  life.  Then  he  passed  on  to  the  task  of 
the  next  period  without  the  least  hint  that 
the  varying  tasks  were  not  joined  in  the  har- 
mony of  the  divine  purpose.  The  work  of 
his  life  was  like  his  garment;  it  was  all  of 
one  piece.  From  the  building  of  the  Nazareth 
cottage  on  to  the  building  of  the  "many  man- 
sions," there  is  no  consciousness  of  contradic- 
tion. With  Jesus  the  working  life  was  a 
unity. 

And  at  the  risk  of  being  mechanical  in  the 
use  of  bungling  divisions  we  may  declare  that 
Jesus  entered  into  all  the  large  divisions  of 
toil.  The  note  of  universality  is  seen  here  as 
it  is  seen  elsewhere.  We  have  been  told  that 
the  three  forms  of  temptation  that  Jesus  en- 
countered on  mountain  top  and  temple  pin- 
nacle exhaust  all  the  types.  It  has  been  said, 
too,  that  the  thankfulness  of  Jesus  is  directed 
toward  all  the  channels  by  which  the  good  of 
life  can  flow  in  upon  us.  This  same  charac- 
teristic of  universality  appears  in  the  work 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  137 

of  Christ.  As  a  carpenter  he  worked  upon 
material  things.  As  a  healer  he  worked  upon 
the  bodies  of  men.  As  a  teacher  he  worked 
upon  the  minds  of  men.  As  a  preacher  he 
worked  upon  the  souls  of  men.  All  the  workers 
of  the  world  can  be  brought  into  one  of  these 
divisions,  and  so  all  true  workers  can  enter 
into  partnership  \\ith  Jesus.  We  call  him  the 
Carpenter,  the  Great  Physician,  the  Greatest 
Teacher,  the  World's  Saviour!  The  manual 
toilers  claim  him.  The  doctors  claim  him. 
The  teachers  claim  him.  The  evangelists 
claim  him.  He  is  at  home  in  the  shop,  in  the 
hospital,  in  the  schoolroom,  and  in  the  temple. 
All  the  classes  of  toilers  can  appeal  to  the 
sanction  of  his  example. 

Still  we  must  again  assert  that  these  clumsy 
divisions  were  not  emphasized  by  Jesus  him- 
self. There  has  been  an  age-long  debate,  oft- 
times  degenerating  into  a  wrangle,  as  to  the 
relative  hardships  of  the  different  forms  of 
labor.  Men  who  cling  to  their  occupations  will 
still  declare  that  those  occupations  have  trials 
beyond  all  others.  Into  this  debate  Jesus  did 
not  enter.  He  never  set  one  form  of  toil 
against  another  by  entering  into  any  compari- 
sons or  contrasts.  As  he  experienced  all  the 
general  forms  of  labor,  so  did  he  honor  all 
forms.  In  his  view  they  were  all  good  and 
all  cooperative.    On  the  surface  they  may  seem 


138  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

to  be  rivals,  but  in  the  center  they  are  actual 
partners  in  the  divine  program.  Hence  Jesus 
passed  from  one  realm  of  work  to  another 
with  little  sense  of  transition.  Carpenter, 
Healer,  Teacher,  Preacher,  he  was  ever  the 
servant  of  the  Kingdom.  Faithfulness,  honor, 
industry,  efficiency,  patience — in  short,  all  the 
virtues  were  possible  in  any  good  way  of  work. 
The  life  of  Jesus  unites  all  our  types  of  labor 
in  a  divine  purpose  and  rebukes  that  quarrel- 
some spirit  which  so  often  sets  the  manual 
laborers  and  the  mental  and  moral  laborers 
in  opposition.  The  hand  cannot  say  to  the 
head,  "I  have  no  need  of  thee,"  nor  can  the 
head  utter  the  like  speech  of  egotism  and  self- 
sufficiency.  The  workers  are  all  one  body,  and 
every  one  members  of  another. 

So  do  we  find  Jesus  putting  himself  with 
willing  sacrifice  into  his  varying  tasks.  He 
had  said  to  his  parents  in  Jerusalem,  "Wist 
ye  not  that  I  must  be  amid  my  Father's  mat- 
ters?" and  then  he  went  into  what  men  call 
the  silent  years.  But  they  were  not  wholly 
silent.  The  attentive  can  hear  the  sound  of 
the  hammer.  The  point  is  that  in  passing 
from  the  Jerusalem  temple  to  the  Nazareth 
shop  Jesus  did  not  depart  from  his  Father's 
business.  We  may  all  resent  the  particular 
descriptions  of  the  quality  of  his  work  as  a 
carpenter;  and  we  may  be  quite  content  in 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  139 

our  faith  that  all  his  work  was  done  faith- 
fully and  well.  Holman  Hunt's  "Shadow  of 
the  Cross''  relates  Jesus's  work  in  the  shop 
to  his  sacrificial  character.  At  the  end  of  a 
weary  day  the  Nazareth  Carpenter  extends  his 
arms  to  relieve  his  weariness.  The  sunshine 
coming  through  the  window  casts  his  shadow 
on  the  wall  in  the  form  of  a  Cross.  His 
mother  glancing  in  through  another  window 
sees  the  Cross  foreshadowed  there  and  gets 
her  glimpse  of  the  sword  that  should  enter 
her  own  heart.  Nor  did  Jesus  escape  hard- 
ship and  exhaustion  when  he  became  a  healer 
and  teacher  of  the  people.  The  crowds 
thronged  him  wherever  he  went.  The  hillside 
became  like  an  open-air  hospital.  The  multi- 
tudes hung  upon  his  words  of  instruction. 
Some  have  said  that  one  reason  why  he  com- 
manded men  who  were  healed  or  who  were 
told  the  deeper  secret  of  his  nature  that  they 
"should  tell  no  man,"  was  that  he  might  avoid 
the  greater  press  of  the  throngs.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  we  are  surely  justified  in  saying  that 
he  gave  himself  lavishly  to  the  work  of  each 
period.  In  each  section  of  his  life  his  action 
said,  "I  must  work." 

It  would  be  easy,  however,  to  overstate 
Jesus's  relation  to  work.  He  did  not  labor 
all  the  time.  Knowing  how  to  toil  he  knew 
likewise  how  to  rest.    Men  may  plead  the  ex- 


140  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

ample  of  Satan  against  a  vacation  season,  but 
they  cannot  plead  the  example  of  Christ !  He 
rested  after  he  had  worked  and  in  order  that 
he  might  work  again.  When  the  crowd  became 
importunate  and  the  drain  upon  his  power  had 
become  severe,  he  sought  the  desert  and  in 
its  quiet  restored  himself  for  the  new  labors. 
He  bade  his  weary  disciples  to  come  apart  to 
the  spot  of  respite.  He  was  the  exemplar  of 
proper  rest  even  as  he  was  the  exemplar  of 
proper  work.  Industrious  men  often  need  one 
lesson  even  as  lazy  men  need  the  other.  There 
are  persons  who  are  greedy  of  toil.  They  are 
as  avaricious  for  it  as  the  miser  is  for  gold. 
They  are  what  Carlyle  would  call  "terrible 
toilers."  They  die  before  their  time  because 
they  work  after  their  time.  Jesus  knew  this 
danger.  He  wished  to  guard  against  it  by 
keeping  the  Sabbath  for  man.  He  wanted  to 
save  the  resting  place  between  the  weeks  be- 
cause he  wanted  to  save  man  to  his  best  self 
and  work.  He  prescribed  the  working  day 
and  the  shop,  and  he  prescribed  the  resting 
day  and  the  desert. 

We  need  not  be  surprised,  then,  to  find  that 
the  new  day  puts  the  emphasis  on  the  sancti- 
fication  of  common  work.  Professor  Peabody 
gives  the  contrast  between  two  well-known 
poems  as  illustrating  a  change  that  has  come 
over  the  personal  side  of  the  social  question. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  141 

A  generation  since  Lowell  gave  us  his  "Vision 
of  Sir  Launfal."  The  hero  of  this  poem,  after 
traveling  in  many  lands,  finally  finds  the  holy 
grail  in  the  cup  which  he  had  filled  for  a  way- 
side beggar,  while  the  more  personal  presence 
of  Jesus  is  discovered  in  the  beggar  himself 
to  whom  the  searcher  has  given  alms.  The 
characteristic  of  the  new  day  is  seen  in  Van 
Dyke's  "The  Toiling  of  Felix."  The  hero  of 
this  later  poem,  after  seeking  the  direct  vision 
of  his  Lord  in  caves  and  deserts  of  idle  con- 
templation, at  last  secures  the  coveted  revela- 
tion as  he  enters  gladly  into  a  life  of  toil 
and  particularly  as  he  flings  himself  into  the 
swollen  river  to  rescue  a  fellow  laborer.  Felix 
finds  that  there  is  a  holy  literalness  in  the 
words  which  he  found  on  the  piece  of  papyrus 
as  a  recovered  gospel  of  Christ: 

Lift  the  stone,  and  thou  shalt  find  me; 
Cleave  the  wood,  and  there  am  I. 

The  ranks  of  labor  are  "the  dusty  regiments 
of  God.''  The  Lord,  being  a  worker,  is  mind- 
ful of  his  own : 

Born  within  the  Bethlehem  manger  where  the  cattle 

round  me  stood. 
Trained   a   carpenter   of   Nazareth,   I   have   toiled   and 

found  it  good. 

The  good  work  of  the  world  is  the  work  of 


142  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Christ.  There  is  really  no  contrast  between 
sacred  and  secular;  the  actual  contrast  is 
between  the  sacred  and  the  wicked. 

They  who  tread  the  path  of  labor,  follow  where  Christ's 

feet  have  trod, 
They  who  work  without  complaining,  do  the  holy  will 

of  God. 

This  is  the  Gospel  of  labor — ring  it,  ye  bells  of  the  kirk, 
The  Lord  of  Love  came  down  from  above  to  live  with 
the  men  who  work. 

The  inevitable  drift  of  this  emphasis  on  the 
working  experience  of  Jesus  has  swept  admir- 
ation away  from  the  monastic  life.  The 
"religious''  are  not  those  who  shun  the  world 
of  toil  in  order  that  they  may  gain  the  world 
of  personal  peace  and  salvation.  The  modern 
saint  is  not  a  Simon  the  Stylite.  Saint  Francis 
of  Assisi  projects  himself  into  the  admiration 
of  the  twentieth  century  because  he  was  a 
worker  rather  than  a  recluse.  The  attitude 
toward  monasticism  among  the  healthier  and 
more  energetic  peoples  goes  further  than  this : 
there  is  a  feeling  that  in  the  last  analysis  the 
religious  hermit  is  spiritually  selfish.  That  is 
deemed  a  poor  kind  of  religion  which  forsakes 
a  world  in  order  to  save  one's  soul.  The 
argument  that  the  recluses  may  render  the 
world  the  service  of  constant  prayer  does  not 
appeal  to  those  who  know  that  work  is  itself 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  143 

a  form  of  prayer;  and  that  in  Jesus  prayer 
and  work  lived  together  in  harmony.  A  better 
understanding  of  the  religion  of  Christ  de- 
mands that  its  followers  shall  be  socially 
efficient.  If  Jesus  is  to  be  the  world's  ex- 
ample, more  and  more  men  and  women  will 
find  in  their  legitimate  toil  one  of  the  sacra- 
ments of  life. 

Already  we  have  come  to  feel  that  the  Bible 
doctrine  of  work,  especially  as  that  doctrine 
is  incarnated  in  Christ,  lays  stress  upon  the 
man  as  well  as  upon  his  task.  It  asks,  "What 
is  the  man  doing  with  his  work?"  It  also 
asks,  "What  is  the  work  doing  with  the  man  ?" 
The  reflexes  of  activity  often  become  a  topic 
of  teaching.  Paul  said  that  the  man  reaps  the 
harvest  of  his  own  sowing.  Jesus  said,  "With 
what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured 
to  you  again."  This  is  much  as  if  he  had  said 
that  in  the  upper  realms  of  living  action  and 
reaction  are  equal  and  in  opposite  directions. 
He  told  his  disciples  that,  if  they  pronounced 
the  benediction  of  peace  upon  a  house  unfit  or 
unwilling  to  receive  it,  the  benediction  should 
return  to  them  again.  The  meaning  is  that 
no  work  done  with  the  right  spirit  can  really 
fail.  The  poets  give  this  idea  currency. 
George  Herbert  declares  that  a  servant  with 
the  proper  clause  in  his  creed  makes  "drudgery 
divine" : 


144  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Who  sweeps  a  room  as  to  thy  law 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine. 

He  had  already  implied  that  such  a  servant 
made  himself  fine.  Mrs.  Browning  emphasizes 
the  need  of  a  serious  purpose  in  work  when 
she  uses  her  picturesque  description: 

I  would  rather  dance  at  fairs  on  tight  rope 
Till  the  babies  dropped  their  gingerbread  for  joy, 
Than  shift  the  types  for  tolerable  verse,  intolerable 
To  men  who  act  and  suffer.     Better  far 
Pursue  a  frivolous  trade  by  serious  means 
Than  a  sublime  art  frivolously. 

It  is  "better  far"  because  our  seriousness 
comes  back  to  dwell  with  us;  and  our  frivo- 
lousness  does  the  same.  Many  of  the  parables 
get  their  meaning  from  this  certainty  of  re- 
action. The  good  shepherd  is  good  because  he 
does  his  work  well,  and  the  return  of  his  work 
makes  him  better  still.  Just  as  physical  work 
reacts  on  the  muscles,  so  that  sometimes  men 
exercise  without  any  outward  object  in  view, 
even  so  does-  the  moral  spirit  of  work  come 
back  to  dwell  with  the  man  and  to  make  his 
last  estate  either  better  or  worse.  Our  bodies 
are  built  into  strength  by  a  series  of  reactions, 
and  our  spirits  evermore  receive  their  own 
with  usury. 

This  idea,  as  we  have  observed  in  another 
connection,  has  wrought  some  marked  changes 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  145 

in  the  social  program.  It  has  largely  super- 
seded almsgiving  by  workgiving.  Scientific 
charity  seeks  to  remove  the  causes  of  poverty, 
knowing  that  this  is  the  sure  way  to  remove 
poverty  itself.  The  conviction  is  that  a  day's 
work  with  a  day's  pay  is  far  better  for  the 
man  than  a  day's  pay  without  the  day's  work. 
In  the  latter  case  the  man  loses  both  inde- 
pendence and  self-respect,  while  in  the  former 
case  he  keeps  both  of  these  and  gains  in  addi- 
tion the  rebound  of  faithful  labor.  The  tramp, 
or  the  man  with  the  heart  of  a  tramp,  always 
fails.  Outwitting  others,  he  outwits  himself 
more  truly.  He  plays  tricks  on  his  own  soul. 
The  weakness  of  his  life  settles  back  into  his 
spirit.  He  drags  Tvith  him  always  his  evasions 
and  neglects.  Scamping  his  toil,  he  scamps 
his  own  soul.  All  shoddy  material  gets  built 
into  his  own  being.  He  erects  a  dishonest 
house  for  another,  but  with  it  he  erects  an  evil 
structure  in  which  he  himself  must  live.  So 
it  is  that  a  man's  work  may  be  his  blessing, 
or  it  may  be  his  vengeance. 

While  this  idea  has  its  terrible  side,  it  has 
also  its  side  of  glory  and  comfort.  It  provides 
amply  for  the  failure  of  the  faithful.  Gold- 
smith says  that  "Good  counsel  rejected  re- 
turns to  enrich  the  giver's  bosom,"  just  as 
Jesus  says  the  declined  benediction  of  peace 
comes  back  to  the  true  disciple.     It  follows 


146  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

that  for  the  good  workman  there  is  no  real 
failure.  The  house  that  he  has  builded  may- 
go  up  in  smoke  and  flame,  but  the  industry 
and  honor  that  fashioned  its  walls  and  fash- 
ioned themselves  in  the  making  of  the  walls 
cannot  be  destroyed.  The  fortune  that  he  has 
gathered  may  take  wings  and  fly  away,  but 
the  deeper  treasures  that  have  been  garnered 
by  fair-dealing  in  the  marketplace  abide  in 
the  deposit  of  the  heart.  Jesus  said,  ^'Your 
hearts  shall  rejoice,  and  your  joy  no  man 
taketh  from  you."  We  see  here  that  there  are 
possessions  that  human  power  cannot  remove. 
They  have  been  woven  into  the  self.  The 
treasure  house  is  too  deep  for  the  touch  of 
man.    A  minor  poet  tells  us : 

I've  found  some  wisdom  in  my  quest 

That's  richly  worth  retailing; 
I've  found  that  when  one  does  his  best 

There's  little  harm  in  failing. 

He  corrects  this  mild  statement  in  his  con- 
cluding verse.  He  wanted  riches,  but  he  was 
rich  without  them;  he  wanted  to  sound  the 
depths  with  his  philosophy,  but  his  ship  sailed 
on  anyhow ;  he  wanted  fame ;  but  he  discovered 
the  secret  of  greatness  without  it;  and  so  he 
adds  the  lines  which  declare  that  the  failing 
of  the  faithful  not  only  does  "little  harm,''  but 
even  that  it  furnishes  its  own  enrichment  of 
the  real  life ; 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  147 

I  may  not  reach  what  I  pursue, 

Yet  will  I  keep  pursuing; 
Nothing  is  vain  that  I  can  do; 

For  soul-growth  comes  from  doing. 

David  "does  welF'  that  it  is  in  his  heart  to 
build  the  Lord's  house,  even  though  the  honor 
be  passed  on  to  another.  The  good  purpose 
helps  to  make  the  good  man;  and  the  good 
purpose  that  expresses  itself  in  work  is  sure 
of  the  inner  reward.  This  conception  may  be 
twisted  into  a  soft  gospel  for  the  inefficient; 
but  the  evident  purpose  of  the  Bible  is  to  offer 
it  as  a  comforting  gospel  for  the  faithful. 

It  would  be  easy  to  follow  the  guidance  of 
the  Concordance  as  it  notes  the  word  "work" 
in  the  Epistles.  All  of  the  conceptions  that 
have  thus  far  been  treated  reappear  in  the 
apostolic  writings.  The  symbol  of  everyday 
work  is  constantly  lifted  to  the  highest.  We 
do  not  need  to  see  Paul  bending  over  the  sail- 
cloth and  thrusting  his  needle  into  the  canvas 
ere  we  know  that  he  is  a  worker.  His  whole 
life  was  one  of  toil.  He  was  not  slothful  in 
his  apostolic  business;  and  the  fervor  of  his 
spirit  would  have  been  a  good  example  to  the 
ancient  mechanic  or  merchant.  He  saw  good 
men  as  his  colaborers  with  God.  He  saw  the 
men  that  he  helped  to  make  good  as  a  hus- 
bandry that  he  was  cultivating  for  the  Lord, 
as   a   building   that   he   was   fashioning   for 


148  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Christ's  sake.  The  cure  for  thieving  was 
work.  He  that  stole  was  to  steal  no  more, 
but  was  to  work  with  his  hands  the  thing  that 
was  good;  and  the  benevolent  motive  was  to 
impel  to  work  that  the  former  thief  might 
have  something  to  give  to  the  needy.  It  was  of 
the  hard  toil  of  servants  that  Paul  said, 
"Whatsoever  good  thing  any  man  doeth,  the 
same  shall  he  receive  of  the  Lord."  It  is  the 
idea  of  reaction  again ;  God  suffers  no  faithful 
worker  to  lose  his  reward.  The  apostolic  rule 
is  very  thoroughgoing  in  dealing  with  laziness. 
"If  any  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat." 
This  rule  may  be  an  offense  to  the  idle  rich, 
but  it  appeals  to  the  sense  of  justice.  Perhaps 
some  day  society  will  be  skillful  enough  to 
starve  its  tramps  and  shirks  until  they  flee 
to  toil  as  to  a  refuge. 

It  is  peculiar  that  the  end  of  the  Bible  should 
have  been  misconceived,  even  as  the  beginning, 
in  its  teaching  concerning  work.  We  have 
discussed  the  heresy  that  declares  that  work 
is  a  penalty  of  sin.  There  is  another  heresy 
which  pictures  heaven  as  a  place  of  everlast- 
ing idleness.  If  we  select  certain  of  the  de- 
scriptions of  Revelation,  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
the  error  arose.  Yet  in  each  of  the  weird 
pictures  of  the  eternal  city  there  is  one  sen- 
tence at  least  that  hints  at  heavenly  service. 
For  energetic  souls  no  other  conception  will 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WORK  149 

be  satisfying.  Surely  inactivity  is  not  the 
goal  of  a  redeemed  race.  Shortly  before  his 
death  Mark  Twain  published  in  a  magazine 
a  satire  on  the  usual  idea  of  heaven.  Intro- 
duced in  a  dream  to  the  city  of  our  hope,  he 
was  told  by  an  attending  angel  to  take  his 
seat  on  a  cloud  and  to  occupy  himself  by 
wearing  a  crown  and  holding  a  harp.  Soon 
becoming  weary  of  this  do-nothing  life,  he  came 
down  to  the  golden  streets.  He  was  asked  to 
keep  for  a  time  the  crowns  and  harps  of  the 
passers-by,  and  he  noted  that  the  way  was 
strewn  with  these  rejected  ornaments !  Some 
good  people  may  have  been  offended  by  the 
satire;  and  some  whose  life  has  been  filled 
with  weariness  will  insist  that  heaven  must 
offer  rest.  So  indeed  it  must.  One  suggestive 
passage  says  concerning  the  souls  of  those  that 
were  slain  for  the  testimony  of  Christ  that 
they  should  "rest  yet  for  a  little  season." 
Those  that  have  come  out  of  great  tribulation 
are  given  service  as  a  reward  of  their  tribu- 
lation. "Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne 
of  God  and  serve  him  day  and  night  in  his 
temple."  In  the  later  description  the  land  of 
rest  is  seen  as  a  land  of  work,  and  "his  serv- 
ants shall  serve  him."  The  race  does  not  look 
back  to  a  workless  Eden;  neither  does  it  look 
forward  to  a  workless  heaven.  Kipling  puts 
it  well  for  either  here  or  there : 


150  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

We  shall  rest,  and,  faith,  we  shall  need  it. 

Lie  down  for  an  eon  or  two, 
Till  the  Master  of  all  good  workmen 

Shall  set  us  to  work  anew. 

The  ideal  of  the  Bible  is  service,  and  that 
ideal  is  not  rejected  when  life  comes  to  its 
crowning. 

One  of  the  great  hymns  of  the  church  gives 
to  the  worshipers  in  a  sanctuary  the  Bible's 
Gospel  of  Work : 

Yet  these  are  not  the  only  walls 
Wherein  thou  mayst  be  sought; 

On  homeliest  work  thy  blessing  falls 
In  truth  and  patience  wrought. 

Thine  is  the  loom,  the  forge,  the  mart, 

The  wealth  of  land  and  sea; 
The  worlds  of  science  and  of  art, 

Revealed  and  ruled  by  thee. 

Then  let  us  prove  our  heavenly  birth 

In  all  we  do  and  know. 
And  claim  the  kingdom  of  the  earth 

For  thee,  and  not  thy  foe. 

Work  shall  be  prayer,  if  all  be  wrought 

As  thou  wouldst  have  it  done; 
And  prayer,  by  thee  inspired  and  taught, 

Itself  with  work  be  one. 

The  biblical  ideal  for  earth  sends  men  forth 
to  their  daily  tasks,  while  the  biblical  ideal 
for  heaven  breaks  its  reserve  sufficiently  to 
show  us  a  City  wherein  the  saints  at  rest  are 
likewise  the  saints  at  work. 


CHAPTER   VI 

The  Bible  and  Wealth 

The  word  '^wealth''  as  used  in  this  discus- 
sion does  not  mean  simply  great  riches;  it 
rather  means  those  outer  and  visible  means 
which  have  a  certain  purchasing  power  and 
which  gain  their  value  from  that  fact.  The 
word  is  relative  at  best.  A  wealthy  man  of 
fifty  years  ago  would  by  many  be  deemed  a 
poor  man  now;  while,  in  the  individual  esti- 
mate, one  man's  poverty  would  be  another 
man's  riches.  We  have  all  discovered,  too, 
that  persons  may  be  tested  by  their  attitude 
toward  little  as  well  as  by  their  attitude  to- 
ward much.  The  man  who  breaks  down  in 
his  use  of  a  thousand  dollars  is  not  likely  to 
recover  his  conscience  in  his  use  of  a  million 
dollars.  There  is  high  authority  for  the  belief 
that  he  that  is  faithful  in  a  few  things  can 
be  trusted  with  rulership  over  many  things. 
This  principle  will  apply  to  riches  quite  as 
well  as  to  cities.  We  must  necessarily  take 
at  large  discount  the  vigorous  attack  that  is 
made  on  great  wealth  by  the  man  who  is  nar- 
row and  selfish  in  his  use  of  moderate  wealth. 

151 


152  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

One  ray  of  light  falling  into  a  dark  dungeon 
will  test  a  man's  attitude  toward  light;  and 
so  the  real  personal  attitude  toward  one  coin 
may  become  the  revelation  of  a  human  heart. 

All  of  us  must  live  within  the  realm  of 
material  endeavor.  Six  days  of  the  week  are 
given  by  the  average  man  in  an  effort  to  win 
worldly  goods.  If,  as  is  generally  supposed, 
Jesus  went  back  from  the  temple  scene  in 
Jerusalem  when  he  was  twelve  years  of  age 
and  worked  in  the  village  carpenter  shop  until 
he  was  thirty,  he  spent  eighteen  years  in  a 
remunerative  employment  ere  he  entered  upon 
the  three  years  of  public  ministry.  It  is  a 
mechanical  conception  again;  but  it  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  that  the  proportion  of  his 
years  spent  in  his  trade  is  the  same  six 
sevenths  of  the  time  that  most  men  must  spend 
in  the  effort  to  gain  the  necessaries  or  luxuries 
of  life.  One  has  only  to  stand  on  the  streets 
of  the  city  in  the  early  morning  and  see  the 
throngs  as  they  move  to  their  places  of  work 
to  appreciate  how  large  a  part  the  wage  motive 
plays  in  actual  living.  Each  day  many  mil- 
lions of  men  and  women  go  down  to  the 
various  marts  in  order  that  in  the  evening 
time  they  may  come  back  from  the  struggle 
with  increased  gains.  If  the  Bible  takes  an 
attitude  toward  the  spirit  that  dominates 
work  it  must  also  take  an  attitude  toward  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        153 

spirit  that  dominates  the  object  of  work.  It 
would  be  small  use  to  have  men  made  right 
toward  toil  if  they  were  to  be  twisted  in  their 
relation  to  the  proceeds  of  toil.  We  should 
expect,  then,  that  the  Bible  would  give  some 
explicit  teaching  to  individual  men  concern- 
ing the  right  attitude  toward  wealth;  and 
when  we  turn  to  the  Holy  Book  this  expecta- 
tion is  fully  met. 

Beyond  this,  the  social  consequences  of 
wealth  are  manifold  and  important.  To  see 
this  point  clearly  exemplified  in  a  wide  field, 
we  have  but  to  study  the  history  of  the  wars 
waged  by  our  own  nation.  At  some  point 
every  one  of  these  great  struggles  has  been 
caused  by  a  false  relation  to  wealth.  Just 
where  we  locate  that  false  relation  will  depend 
somewhat  upon  our  prejudices;  but  the  di- 
lemma in  each  case  is  such  that  we  are  driven 
to  locate  it  somewhere.  The  French  and 
Indian  War  was  a  military  debate  as  to 
whether  the  English  or  the  French  should 
gather  the  furs  in  the  region  of  the  Upper 
Ohio  and  should  secure  the  profits  in  the 
world's  markets.  In  the  settlement  of  that 
issue  many  lives  were  sacrificed.  The  War 
for  Independence  was  caused  by  taxes — not, 
as  many  people  suppose,  by  a  tax  on  tea  alone, 
but  by  a  long  series  of  taxes  covering  many 
years.    If  the  English  had  a  right  to  levy  the 


154  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

tax  and  if  the  tax  was  just,  then  the  colonists 
were  greedy.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Americans  refused  to  pay  an  unjust  tax,  in- 
spired in  their  rebellion  by  a  lofty  spirit  of 
liberty,  then  the  English  were  the  greedy 
party.  The  War  of  1812  was  caused  by  the 
seizure  of  our  vessels  on  the  French  coast  and 
related  to  freedom  of  commerce.  The  dilemma 
is  the  same  as  before.  Some  one  was  at  fault 
in  that  commercial  war.  A  wrong  attitude 
toward  property  caused  the  long-drawn-out 
struggle. 

Our  later  wars  show  the  same  form  of  con- 
test. Historians  declare  that  the  war  with 
Mexico  was  occasioned  by  the  desire  to  extend 
slavery  territory;  by  the  nation's  lust  for  the 
enlargement  of  her  borders;  and  by  certain 
debts  owed  to  citizens  of  the  United  States 
by  citizens  of  Mexico.  All  of  these  motives 
touch  somewhere  on  gold.  The  Civil  War 
grew  from  the  same  "root  of  all  evil." 
Northern  men  aided  in  bringing  African 
slaves  to  this  land  in  order  to  turn  forced 
labor  into  money,  while  Southern  men  con- 
tinued African  slavery  because  it  was  deemed 
necessary  for  the  production  of  cotton.  The 
cry  "Cotton  is  king"  was  not  always  spoken 
above  a  whisper,  but  as  a  slogan  it  caused 
some  fierce  struggling.  Boston  merchants 
helped  to  mob  Garrison.     The  sentiment  of 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        155 

England  flowed  against  the  North  because  it 
was  thought  that  the  abolishing  of  slavery 
would  demoralize  the  markets  of  the  world. 
The  hooting  crowds  that  Beecher  faced  in 
England  were  unconsciously  influenced  to 
their  hostile  attitude  by  a  commercial  argu- 
ment. The  whole  struggle  w^as  broadened  and 
heightened  until  words  like  "liberty''  and 
"unity"  put  a  moral  passion  into  the  fray. 
But,  while  the  nature  of  the  government  and 
the  question  of  human  rights  were  to  be 
settled,  the  primary  occasion  of  the  contest 
was  commercial. 

Nor  was  the  w^ar  with  Spain  any  exception 
to  this  rule.  If  we  absolve  the  United  States 
from  any  motive  of  greed  in  our  claim  that 
the  struggle  was  purely  humanitarian  in  its 
character,  we  must  still  grant  that  the  heavy 
taxes  assessed  against  her  Western  colonies 
by  the  Spanish  government  led  to  the  series 
of  revolutions  that  occasioned  our  interfer- 
ence. Thus  do  we  find  that  somewhere  in  the 
heart  of  each  war  there  was  the  lurking 
passion  for  gold.  When  we  make  up  the 
mournful  lists  of  the  many  thousands  whose 
lives  have  gone  out  in  these  contests,  we  can 
debit  them  against  the  spirit  of  greed.  Milton 
in  Paradise  Lost  represents  that  the  rebellion 
in  heaven  was  caused  by  the  like  lust,  and 
that  Satan's  eyes  were  ever  bent  in  anxious 


156  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

desire  toward  the  very  gold  of  the  streets! 
Milton's  imagination  concerning  heaven 
stands  for  the  historical  fact  about  earth.  The 
demon  of  greed  is  usually  the  demon  of  war. 

The  great  problems  of  current  national  life 
all  trench  upon  the  same  influence.  If  money 
be  not  the  principal  in  each  of  them  it  comes 
in  as  an  important  confederate.  The  tariff 
problem,  the  currency  problem,  the  canal  tolls 
problem,  the  trust  problem — all  these  are 
quickly  classified  by  their  names.  The  cleav- 
age between  American  political  parties  for  the 
last  fifty  years  has  been  made  by  a  wedge  of 
gold.  Tariff,  or  coinage,  or  trusts — these  have 
been  the  large  words  of  political  speech.  In 
the  problems  that  have  a  more  apparent  moral 
bearing  the  same  commercial  element  appears. 
The  Labor  Problem  is  with  us  quite  as  acutely 
as  it  was  with  the  Romans  when  long  ago  the 
plebeians  left  the  city  and  camped  on  the  hill- 
sides, leaving  the  patricians  to  do  their  own 
manual  toil.  Whether  the  employer  gives  too 
little  or  the  employee  asks  too  much  in  any 
given  struggle,  the  demon  of  greed  plays  his 
part  again.  In  the  Temperance  Problem  the 
case  is  even  clearer.  Distillers  and  brewers 
and  saloonists  do  not  enter  their  trade  because 
they  thereby  add  either  to  their  social  stand- 
ing or  to  their  moral  peace.  We  cannot  elim- 
inate from  the  problem  the  factor  of  the  human 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        157 

appetite  that  craves  a  stimulant;  at  the  same 
time  we  know  that  the  motive  for  the  business 
itself  comes  from  the  lure  of  gold.  That  gleam 
invites  many  men  into  a  path  which,  as  they 
themselves  know  well,  cannot  lead  to  any  large 
political  preferment  or  to  any  great  personal 
admirations. 

The  problem  of  social  purity  is,  of  course, 
related  to  another  human  passion.  But  there 
has  crept  into  the  vocabulary  of  the  people 
a  suggestive  phrase,  "commercialized  vice." 
There  is  the  general  feeling  that,  if  the  element 
of  monetary  profit  could  be  taken  from  the 
loathsome  trade,  the  problem  would  be  much 
nearer  its  solution.  Hence  we  have  our  Red 
Light  Abatement  Laws  by  which  we  seek  to 
make  it  dangerous  for  men  to  rent  their  prop- 
erty for  the  traffic  in  virtue.  On  the  legal 
side  the  present  efforts  at  the  solution  of  the 
problem  all  strive  to  fix  a  set  of  conditions, 
making  commercially  unprofitable  the  house 
of  her  whose  feet  take  hold  on  death.  If,  as 
is  earnestly  contended  by  some,  low  wages 
tend  to  furnish  the  recruits  for  the  pitiable 
ranks  of  the  trade  in  bodies,  we  have  another 
commercial  factor  in  the  campaign.  Explain 
it  as  we  may,  it  is  still  true  that  money  makes 
the  unholy  alliances.  It  is  no  marvel  that 
the  Bible  has  sent  down  to  all  the  centuries  its 
phrase,  "the  mammon  of  unrighteousness.'^ 


158  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Of  course,  many  will  overstate  the  case  of 
American  greed.  The  Almighty  Dollar  is  not 
our  God.  Our  passing  celebrities  may  be  mere 
millionaires,  but  our  permanent  heroes  were 
quite  more  than  traders.  If  we  have  seemed 
more  commercial  than  other  peoples  it  has 
been  because  a  new  continent  gave  such  sweep- 
ing opportunities  for  wealth.  Some  one  has 
said  that  it  is  an  evidence  of  the  degeneracy 
of  our  period  that  the  word  "worth,"  which 
once  had  a  noble  and  inner  significance,  is 
now  controlled  by  the  market.  The  fact  that 
the  word  has  gone  downhill  is  taken  to  mean 
that  the  people  who  use  it  so  have  gone  down- 
hill too !  But  these  verbal  arguments  are  not 
reliable.  While  the  word  "worth'^  has  dropped 
somewhat  from  its  old  glory,  the  word 
"talent,' '  which  once  had  merely  a  monetary 
significance,  has  mounted  to  a  higher  meaning. 
The  one  word  is  just  as  good  a  witness  as  the 
other.  The  truth  is  that  we  meet  to-day  the 
world-old  problem.  The  evidence  of  this  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  Bible  dealt  with  the  prob- 
lem in  emphatic  fashion.  It  lists  for  us  the 
victims  of  greed:  Lot,  Gehazi,  Ananias  and 
Sapphira,  Simon  Magus,  the  young  ruler, 
Judas.  We  shall  find  in  its  pages  some  gen- 
eral principles  by  which  it  seeks  to  warn 
wealth  alway  from  pitfalls  and  to  send  it 
forth  to  service. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        159 

The  first  of  these  principles  is  that  God  is 
the  only  and  absolute  Owner.  Our  human 
conceit  makes  for  us  another  theory,  and  our 
legal  codes  write  out  that  theory  in  compli- 
cated formulas.  We  have  our  "clear  titles'' 
and  our  "quitclaim  deeds.''  Formal  records 
at  a  courthouse  tell  men  that  we  "own"  houses 
and  lands,  while  formal  certificates  assert 
our  right  to  so  many  shares  of  stock  or  so 
much  value  in  bonds.  The  Bible  confronts 
our  complacency  with  its  plea  for  the  owner- 
ship of  Another.  God  has  the  only  clear 
titles!  God  has  never  put  his  signature  to  a 
quitclaim  deed!  The  courthouse  record  is  a 
temporary  convenience;  the  higher  record 
gives  the  eternal  fact.  "The  silver  and  the 
gold"  are  God's.  "The  cattle  on  a  thousand 
hills"  are  God's.  "The  earth  is  the  Lord's, 
and  the  fullness  thereof;  the  world,  and  they 
that  dwell  therein."  There  is  here  not  merely 
the  assertion  of  a  property  ownership,  but  an 
assertion  of  the  ownership  of  the  very  men  who 
think  that  they  own  the  property!  The  sea 
and  the  land  are  the  possessions  of  God.  So 
spiritual  a  prelude  as  that  to  the  Gospel  of 
John  claims  a  divine  dominion,  while  many 
words  could  be  quoted  from  both  Testaments 
which  make  God  the  one  august  Possessor. 
The  history  of  all  our  materials  leads  us  back 
to  God  alone.     He  fashioned  the  wood  in  the 


160  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

forests.  He  stored  the  coal  and  iron  in  the 
hills.  He  packed  the  fertility  in  the  soil. 
When  we  look  for  the  source  of  the  medium  of 
exchange  we  must  go  back  of  men  to  God 
himself.  We  pursue  the  gold  coin  to  the  bank, 
and  then  to  the  mint,  and  then  to  the  mine, 
only  to  hear  the  silent  proclamation  of  the 
gold  itself  that  it  is  of  God.  When  congrega- 
tions sing: 

All  things  come  of  thee,  O  God, 

And  of  thine  own  have  we  given  thee, 

it  is  not  an  instance  of  poetic  license  in  rever- 
ence; it  is  sober  fact  expressed  in  worship. 

The  claim  of  the  Bible  for  the  divine  owner- 
ship is  still  more  comprehensive.  All  prop- 
erty is  his;  all  men  are  his.  There  is,  too,  a 
bent  of  human  power  which  God  confers.  We 
are  in  the  habit  of  speaking  of  "gifted''  men. 
The  meaning  of  the  word  in  its  usual  connec- 
tion must  be  that  God  gives  certain  powers  to 
men — to  one  the  power  of  poetry,  to  another 
the  power  of  moving  speech,  and  to  another  the 
power  of  scientific  and  inventive  insight.  Now 
there  is  a  suggestive  verse  in  Deuteronomy 
which  declares  that  it  is  the  Lord  God  that 
"giveth  thee  power  to  get  this  wealth."  The 
^^thee"  is  collective  and  refers  to  the  people; 
but  the  rule  applies  as  well  to  the  individual. 
There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  poetic 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        161 

genius  or  oratorical  genius  or  inventive  genius 
is  a  gift,  while  financial  genius  is  an  achieve- 
ment. Yet  there  are  probably  no  men  who  are 
more  inclined  to  call  themselves  "self-made'' 
than  are  the  men  who  pass  from  poverty  into 
vast  wealth.  Their  complacency  would  be  di- 
minished, and  their  humility  would  be  in- 
creased, if  they  perceived  that  all  property 
belongs  to  God,  that  they  themselves  belong  to 
God,  and  that  their  "power  to  get  this  wealth" 
comes  from  God.  We  find,  then,  that  the  first 
sweeping  principle  which  the  Scriptures  give 
concerning  wealth  is  that  God  is  its  inclusive 
and  ceaseless  owner. 

The  second  principle  follows  as  a  matter  of 
course.  God  being  the  absolute  owner,  man 
is  a  trustee,  a  lessee,  a  borrower.  When  the 
man  in  the  New  Testament  asked,  "Is  it  not 
lawful  for  me  to  do  what  I  will  with  mine 
own?''  he  may  not  have  reached  a  worthy 
definition  either  of  "lawful"  or  of  "mine  own." 
He  may  have  deemed  a  loan  a  final  gift,  a 
lease  a  purchase,  a  possession  a  creation,  a 
stewardship  an  ownership.  It  is  just  this 
error  that  more  than  any  other  leads  to  the 
abuse  of  wealth.  We  treat  it  as  "personal 
property,"  and  the  "personal"  looks  selfward 
rather  than  Godward.  This  was  the  blunder 
of  the  foolish  rich  man.  His  ground  brought 
forth   plentifully.      His   crops   could   not   be 


162  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

crowded  into  his  granaries.  He  resolved  to 
tear  down  his  barns  and  to  build  greater.  He 
told  his  soul  to  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for 
that  it  had  much  goods  laid  up  for  many 
years.  Then  came  the  sentence  of  eviction. 
In  a  moment  the  man  discovered  that  he  was 
a  tenant  and  not  an  owner.  "Whose  shall 
those  things  be  which  thou  hast  provided?" 
This  is  the  question  that  every  man  of  means 
must  ask.  Wills  are  never  shrewd  enough  to 
secure  the  property  for  the  dead.  Jesus  said 
that  the  man  who  acted  on  the  idea  that  wealth 
was  his  own  was  a  "fool."  He  missed  the 
primary  point  of  the  divine  ownership,  and 
he  missed  the  secondary  point  of  the  human 
trusteeship.  All  his  work  was  based  on  im- 
possibilities;  and  surely  this  is  the  supreme 
foolishness. 

This  lesson  is  impressed  upon  men  when  they 
return  to  their  former  places  of  residence  after 
an  absence  of  many  years.  They  recall  who 
"owned"  yonder  house,  yonder  farm,  yonder 
lot,  yonder  block.  The  old  "owners"  are  gone, 
and  the  new  "owners"  have  come.  Changes 
of  apparent  ownership  have  been  entered  in 
the  civil  records;  but  these  in  their  turn  will 
be  changed.  The  procession  of  trustees  moves 
down  through  the  millenniums;  above  the 
trusteeships  is  one  changeless  Owner.  "We 
brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  it  is 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        163 

certain  we  can  carry  nothing  out'' — this  is  the 
surest  of  edicts.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the 
wealthiest  of  men  in  our  nation  called  his 
wife  to  his  bedside  just  before  he  passed  away 
and  asked  her  to  sing  to  him,  "Come,  ye  sin- 
ners, poor  and  needy."  The  man  knew  that 
in  a  few  moments  he  would  be  stripped  of 
every  earthly  possession.  It  was  a  pungent 
reply  made  when  one  man  asked  another  how 
much  a  certain  rich  man  had  left — "All  he 
had !"  was  the  response.  Even  so.  Whenever 
any  person  shall  make  a  stout  claim  for  his 
ownership  of  property,  it  is  a  wholesome 
lesson  if  he  be  asked  to  postpone  the  discussion 
for  a  hundred  years ! 

The  law  of  giving  is  compulsory.  We  may 
defer  surrender,  but  we  cannot  avoid  surren- 
der. The  hand  may  grasp  for  fourscore  years, 
but  its  final  act  vnll  be  to  "let  go"  of  every 
earthly  object.  The  loan  must  be  returned. 
The  trusteeship  must  be  dissolved.  The  lease 
must  be  transferred.  The  account  must  be 
rendered.  Directly  all  that  remains  of  the 
gold  is  the  reflex  of  gold.  We  may  decide 
when  to  give,  to  what  to  give,  in  what  spirit 
to  give;  but  we  may  not  decide  whether  we 
shall  give.  There  is  lasting  truth  in  the  much- 
quoted  epitaph :  "What  I  spent  I  had.  What 
I  saved  I  left  behind.  What  I  gave  away  I 
took  with  me."     In  this  respect  the  w^hole 


164  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

problem  of  life  is  the  problem  of  a  faithful 
stewardship.  This  is  the  teaching  of  what  we 
may  call  the  commercial  parables.  We  are 
responsible  for  the  use  of  our  talents  and 
pounds  to  an  authority  higher  than  our  own. 
The  trustees  pass  away.  The  Owner  abideth 
forever. 

The  third  biblical  principle  declares  that 
this  stewardship  is  attended  by  grave  tempta- 
tions. For  a  hasty  reading  the  New  Testa- 
ment judgment  will  seem  like  a  reversal  of 
the  Old  Testament  judgment.  The  ancient 
record  often  traces  a  relation  between  piety 
and  prosperity.  Jacob's  proposal  at  Bethel 
reads  like  a  bargain  struck  in  the  market 
place.  The  book  of  Job  was  meant  to  correct 
this  error  and  to  drive  from  the  world  those 
needless  suspicions  that  would  be  directed 
against  the  sick  and  the  poor.  In  the  vigorous 
debate  with  his  friends  the  patriarch  declines 
to  plead  guilty  to  the  charge  that  his  bodily 
ills  and  property  losses  are  the  results  of  his 
sins.  But  although  the  commercial  value  of 
piety  may  often  be  found  among  Old  Testa- 
ment motives,  still  there  is  a  constant  offset. 
The  period  of  plenty  is  described  as  accom- 
panied by  a  "leanness  of  soul."  The  deeper 
insight  of  the  psalmist  saw  the  end  of  the 
man  "who  made  not  God  his  strength,  but 
trusted  in  the  abundance  of  his  riches.'^    Then 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        165 

there  stood  before  Mm  the  perplexing  sight  of 
prosperous  wickedness,  the  bad  man  spreading 
himself  as  the  green  bay  tree  and  having 
everything  that  heart  could  wish.  Slowly  the 
artificial  nexus  that  had  been  fashioned  be- 
tween piety  and  prosperity  and  wickedness 
and  misfortune  was  broken,  and  men  began  to 
seek  for  the  different  types  of  reward  in  their 
own  fields.  More  stress  was  laid  upon  the 
methods  by  which  wealth  was  gained,  and 
more  upon  its  charitable  uses.  The  prophets 
came  to  thunder  against  a  false  outer  pros- 
perity and  to  give  their  advance  hints  of  the 
wealth  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

In  its  warnings  the  New  Testament  is  still 
more  emphatic.  The  word  "riches"  becomes 
most  often  a  symbol  of  the  higher  wealth  of 
spirit.  It  is  made  over  into  deeper  meaning. 
Besides,  the  early  Christian  leaders  saw  the 
enticing  dangers  of  wealth.  Visits  to  Ephesus 
or  Corinth  or  Rome  made  them  see  how  multi- 
tudes could  be  caught  in  the  snare  of  riches, 
while  examples  among  the  Jews  gave  them  the 
same  lesson  with  a  personal  emphasis.  There 
were  likewise  some  concrete  illustrations  of 
a  most  forbidding  kind.  Judas  betrayed  Jesus 
for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  The  lust  of  the 
treasury  had  betrayed  him  ere  he  betrayed  his 
Lord.  The  first  persecution  of  the  Christian 
Church  was  caused  by  greed.     It  is  written, 


166  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

"And  when  her  masters  saw  that  the  hope  of 
their  gains  was  gone,  they  caught  Paul  and 
Silas,  and  drew  them  into  the  market  place 
unto  the  rulers."  Soon  the  two  missionaries 
are  beaten  with  rods  and  are  taken  to  the 
inner  prison.  The  second  persecution  of  the 
church  was  caused  by  the  same  spirit  of  greed. 
Demetrius,  the  silversmith,  makes  his  appeal 
to  his  fellow-craftsmen:  "Sirs,  ye  know  that 
by  this  craft  we  have  our  wealth.  Moreover 
ye  see  and  hear,  that  not  alone  at  Ephesus, 
but  almost  throughout  all  Asia,  this  Paul  hath 
persuaded  and  turned  away  much  people,  say- 
ing that  they  be  no  gods,  which  are  made  with 
hands :  So  that  .  .  .  this  our  craft  is  in  danger 
to  be  set  at  naught."  As  is  the  custom  of 
men  with  the  commercial  heart,  he  lifted  the 
issue  to  a  specious  height  and  made  his  plea 
for  Diana  of  the  Ephesians! 

With  the  memory  of  Christ's  betrayal  and 
of  the  first  two  persecutions  of  their  brethren 
fresh  in  their  memories,  it  is  no  marvel  that 
the  New  Testament  writers  began  to  stress  the 
perils  of  greed.  The  work  of  Luke  as  a  physi- 
cian had  doubtless  given  him  an  intense 
sympathy  with  the  poor,  and  his  Gospel 
records  eagerly  our  Lord's  warnings  to  the 
rich.  James  in  his  Epistle  fairly  bristles  with 
indictments  against  the  rich.  He  asks:  "Do 
not  rich  men  oppress  you,  and  draw  you  be- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        167 

fore  the  judgment  seats?  Do  not  they  blas- 
pheme that  worthy  name  by  the  which  ye 
are  called?"  When  he  wrote  thus  did  he 
have  visions  of  Ephesus  and  Philippi?  Later 
he  breaks  into  violence,  "Go  to  now,  ye  rich 
men,  weep  and  howl  for  your  miseries  that 
shall  come  upon  you.  Your  riches  are  cor- 
rupted, and  your  garments  are  moth-eaten. 
Your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered;  and  the 
rust  of  them  shall  be  a  witness  against  you, 
and  shall  eat  your  flesh  as  it  were  fire."  The 
later  verses  indicate  that  he  saw  their  injustice 
to  the  poor  laborers  and  heard  the  cries  which 
these  poor  had  sent  "into  the  ears  of  the  Lord 
of  Sabaoth."  Severe  as  the  indictment  is,  we 
can  see  how  it  was  prompted  by  memory  as 
well  as  by  scenes  of  recent  greed.  Moreover, 
we  have  all  known  modern  cases  to  which  the 
language  would  apply.  If  the  Bible  is  to  be 
complete,  it  must  give  room  to  such  indignant 
words  as  these. 

The  records  would  show  that  Paul  included 
among  his  friends  men  and  women  of  worldly 
means ;  still  his  words  of  chiding  and  warning 
are  not  withheld.  He  writes  of  a  "cloak  of 
covetousness."  He  had  seen  men  don  that 
cloak — by  their  paltry  excuses  for  withholding 
gifts ;  by  their  effort  to  make  an  intent  for  the 
future  stifle  a  present  cry  for  help;  by  a  deft 
transfer  of  income  to  principal  which  "must 


168  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

not  be  disturbed'^;  by  the  plea  that  luxuries 
were  necessities ;  by  a  recital  of  past  generosi- 
ties ;  by  setting  one  good  cause  against  another. 
All  these  modern  cloaks  Paul  doubtless  found 
in  the  wardrobes  of  long  ago.  He  carries  the 
charge  against  covetousness  on  until  he  identi- 
fies it  with  heathenism.  He  writes  of  the 
"covetousness  which  is  idolatry,''  and  in  yet 
another  place  he  speaks  of  the  "covetous  man 
who  is  an  idolater/'  as  if  he  wished  to  make 
the  charge  personal.  Idolatry  is  the  worship 
of  something  less  than  God.  When,  therefore, 
any  man  bows  down  to  idols  of  silver  and  gold 
erected  in  banks  rather  than  by  temple  altars, 
he  joins  the  ranks  of  the  idolatrous.  He  may 
be  even  worse  than  those  idolaters  who  strive 
to  reach  beyond  their  hideous  images  if  haply 
they  may  feel  after  God  and  find  him.  These 
words  of  Paul  are  urgent  warnings  that  covet- 
ousness may  destroy  personal  genuineness  and 
may  defeat  spiritual  worship.  Greed  may 
shut  us  away  from  both  man  and  God. 

But  the  apostle's  strongest  word  is  given  in 
his  counsel  to  Timothy,  a  young  man  whose 
ideals  he  would  seek  to  mold.  We  can  imagine 
the  impression  the  advice  made  upon  the  sus- 
ceptible youth  when  he  read  Paul's  letter  in 
rich  and  worldly  Ephesus.  "They  that  will 
be  rich  fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and 
into  many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  which 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        169 

drown  men  in  destruction  and  perdition.  For 
the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil :  which 
while  some  coveted  after,  they  have  erred  from 
the  faith,  and  pierced  themselves  through 
with  many  sorrows."  It  is  a  modern  account 
again.  The  twentieth  century  has  already 
given  thousands  of  illustrations  of  the  same 
apostasy.  As  for  the  wide  statement  that 
"the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil," 
we  have  but  to  review  these  pages  to  find  the 
commentary.  Every  item  in  the  catalogue  of 
crimes  finds  a  partner  in  greed.  Intemper- 
ance, lust,  war,  thieving,  murder,  betrayal, 
persecution,  untruthfulness — all  these  grow 
from  the  root  of  greed.  No  heedless  joking 
about  the  "root"  can  vacate  the  language  or 
permit  "the  love  of  money"  to  declare  its 
innocence. 

In  addition  to  these  positive  statements 
sprinkled  throughout  the  Book,  there  is  a 
negative  testimony  that  may  well  be  given  a 
hearing.  If  we  were  to  search  the  pages  for 
warnings  against  poverty  we  would  find  that 
the  search  was  difficult  and  that  it  met  with 
slight  returns.  The  prayer  of  Agur  in  the 
book  of  Proverbs  is,  perhaps,  the  only  assured 
instance.  He  pleads:  "Give  me  neither  pov- 
erty nor  riches;  feed  me  with  the  food  that  is 
needful  for  me :  Lest  I  be  full,  and  deny  thee, 
and  say,  Who  is  Jehovah?  or  lest  I  be  poor, 


170  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

and  steal,  and  use  profanely  the  name  of  my 
God."  There  is  here  a  recognition  of  the 
peril  of  discontent  in  poverty,  as  well  as  of 
the  peril  of  dishonesty,  and  the  peril  of  a 
blasphemous  indictment  against  God.  We 
may  take  the  warning  at  its  full  value.  Some 
people  of  every  age  will  need  its  plain  speak- 
ing. But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  biblical 
idea  of  the  peril  of  wealth,  when  its  chapters 
yield  many  scores  of  warnings  as  contrasted 
with  this  lonely  warning  about  poverty?  It 
would  seem  permissible  to  paraphrase  a  Bible 
comparison  of  persons  and  to  say  that  poverty 
has  slain  its  thousands  but  wealth  its  tens 
of  thousands!  Even  this  comparison  falls 
short,  if  we  measure  it  by  the  biblical  propor- 
tion of  teaching.  The  silence  of  the  Bible 
gives  us  here  a  significant  lesson. 

We  now  approach  the  supreme  authority 
in  the  teaching  and  example  of  Jesus.  The 
elective  method  here  will  give  a  man  the  result 
he  most  wishes.  The  boisterous  agitator  can 
make  choice  of  passages  that  will  serve  his 
harsh  purpose,  while  the  defender  of  his  own 
unconsecrated  surplus  may  quote  us  passages 
that  give  him  great  comfort.  The  one  will 
tell  us  of  Jesus's  words  to  the  young  ruler; 
of  his  command  against  laying  up  treasures 
on  earth;  and  of  a  hard-and-fast  interpreta- 
tion of  the  parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus.    The 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        171 

other  will  tell  us  of  the  praise  bestowed  on 
successful  traders;  of  the  inclusion  of  the 
wealthy  among  Christ's  friends  and  disciples; 
and  of  the  law  of  the  larger  returns  for  the 
larger  powers  and  larger  industry  so  plainly 
enunciated  in  the  parables  of  the  talents  and 
the  pounds.  The  fragmentary  method  leads 
here  to  confusion  and  to  the  wildest  partisan- 
ship. The  teaching  of  Jesus  must  be  taken  in 
its  completeness. 

That  teaching  must,  also,  be  judged  by  the 
attitude  of  Jesus  toward  men.  The  well-to-do 
were  in  his  band  of  disciples.  The  father  of 
John  and  James  had  servants;  and  when 
Jesus  died  on  the  Cross  John  had  evidently  a 
comfortable  home  to  which  the  mother  of 
Jesus  was  taken.  Nicodemus  was  rich.  Yet 
in  his  conversation  with  him  Christ  is  not 
represented  as  making  a  demand  that  the 
ruler  of  the  Jews  should  give  up  his  wealth. 
The  demand  was  far  more  comprehensive. 
Zaccheus  was  rich.  But  in  the  table  conver- 
sation with  the  publican  there  is  no  call  to 
voluntary  poverty.  Joseph  of  Arimathea  was 
rich.  Still  he  appears  to  have  been  numbered 
with  the  disciples  and  to  have  had  the  honor 
of  providing  the  sepulcher  for  the  body  of 
Christ.  All  this  would  make  it  certain  that 
some  of  our  Lord's  teaching  was  directed  to- 
ward an  individual  danger  and  so  was  not 


172  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

meant  for  a  universal  application.  The  fact 
that  Peter  said  to  Simon  Magus,  "Thy  money 
perish  with  thee,"  does  not  warrant  us  in 
repeating  the  same  words  to  every  man  who 
possesses  some  wealth.  The  rebuke  was  evoked 
by  a  personal  and  peculiar  attitude.  If  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  as  he  dealt  with  rich  men, 
varied  in  a  marked  degree,  it  is  only  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  he  was  fitting  his  message 
to  the  individual  subject.  The  fallacy  of  the 
universal  has  not  yet  departed  from  our  treat- 
ment of  the  words  of  Christ. 

But  even  when  we  take  the  whole  of  Jesus's 
teaching  rather  than  any  fraction  thereof,  and 
after  we  have  given  full  consideration  to  the 
personal  element  in  his  method,  there  is  still 
a  sobering  remainder  with  which  we  must 
deal.  The  attempt  to  make  the  parable  of  Dives 
and  Lazarus  a  straight  contrast  between 
the  final  fate  of  a  rich  man  and  that  of  a  poor 
man  cannot  succeed.  Lazarus  was  not  sent 
to  heaven  because  he  was  poor.  He  was  not 
given  a  place  in  Abraham's  bosom  on  the 
ground  of  his  poverty  of  circumstances,  but 
on  the  ground  of  his  wealth  of  character.  Any 
other  conclusion  is  abhorrent  to  the  moral 
sense.  Should  poverty  admit  to  heaven,  some 
of  the  most  unmitigated  rascals  are  sure  to 
meet  the  conditions  of  entrance.  Nor  was 
Dives  sent  to  hell  because  he  was  rich.     The 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        173 

contrast  in  earthly  conditions  of  which 
Abraham  reminds  him  cannot  fairly  be  taken 
to  mean  that  the  reward  of  poverty  is  heaven 
and  the  penalty  of  wealth  is  hell.  The  mean- 
ing is  that  earthly  plenty  and  earthly  want 
cannot  prevent  the  rounding  out  of  God's 
purposes.  Condition  will  inevitably  come  to 
correspond  with  real  character.  Should  any 
rich  man  be  minded  to  plead  with  himself 
that  his  wealth  was,  in  itself,  any  evidence 
that  its  owner  was  entitled  to  special  privi- 
leges in  the  next  world  corresponding  to 
his  special  privileges  in  this  world,  this 
parable  would  meet  him  with  its  needed 
corrective. 

The  command,  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasures  upon  earth,  where  moth  and  rust 
doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves  break  through 
and  steal,"  has  been  taken  by  many  as  a  literal 
command.  Usually,  however,  those  who  so 
take  it  are  ready  to  substitute  a  theory  which 
would  ask  the  community  to  break  the  literal 
demand  by  laying  up  treasures  for  us.  We 
must  read  to  the  end  of  the  passage.  Jesus's 
concern  is  about  the  heart.  He  Tsishes  to 
establish  the  direction  of  the  treasure  because 
he  knows  that  in  this  way  the  direction  of  the 
heart  wdll  be  established.  If  money  is  hoarded 
wdth  a  selfish  purpose,  the  heart  goes  to  selfish- 
ness.   If  money  is  given  for  a  holy  cause,  the 


174  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

heart  goes  into  the  cause.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  money  is  saved  in  order  that  the  provident 
parent  may  give  his  child  a  better  fitness  for 
life,  the  parental  heart  is  invested  in  the  child. 
If  money  is  not  hoarded  at  all,  but  is  given 
for  an  evil  cause,  the  heart  takes  that  same 
evil  direction.  The  emphasis  of  Jesus  is 
spiritual  again.  The  money  does  something 
with  the  heart,  and  the  motive  of  either  saving 
or  giving  determines  the  "heart  action."  It 
is  the  law  of  action  and  reaction  at  work  in 
another  realm.  Men  say  that  the  way  to  a 
man's  purse  is  through  his  heart;  and  men 
say  well.  Jesus,  while  accepting  the  statement 
that  there  can  be  no  true  benevolence  that  does 
not  come  from  the  heart,  still  says  that  often 
the  way  to  a  man's  heart  is  through  his  purse. 
It  is  one  of  those  practical  rules  whose  work- 
ing w©  have  seen  many  times.  We  persuade 
a  man  to  send  his  money  into  a  hospital,  a 
college,  a  library,  and  his  heart  follows  his 
money.  The  terrible  thing  that  Jesus  saw  in 
selfish  hoarding  was  just  that ;  and  the  glorious 
thing  that  he  saw  in  generous  giving  was 
just  that.  The  good  and  the  evil  of  earthly 
treasure  is  that  it  fixes  the  journeys  of  the 
heart;  it  makes  a  spiritual  geography. 

There  is  another  word  of  Jesus  about  "the 
deceitfulness  of  riches."  The  phrase  piques  us 
into  a  search  for  its  meaning.     There  is  no 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        175 

evidence  that  Christ  meant  that  riches  de- 
ceived us  by  flying  away.  The  tricks  which 
they  play  upon  men  are  far  more  subtle  than 
sudden  departure.  Jesus  meant  that  riches 
remained  with  men  and  still  carried  on  the 
deceiving  work.  We  have  all  seen  enough  of 
life  to  know  some  of  the  deceptions.  One 
friend  began  his  business  career  with  the  idea 
that  he  would  be  content  with  a  hundred 
thousand;  he  is  now  utterly  restless  with  his 
million.  Another  friend  gave  to  worthy  causes 
a  far  larger  proportion  of  his  meager  income 
in  the  day  of  struggle  than  he  now  gives  of 
his  plethoric  income  in  the  day  of  prosperity. 
Still  another  friend  in  the  old  days  was  simple 
and  humble  in  all  his  attitudes  toward  life, 
w  hile  in  the  new  days  of  wealth  he  has  become 
proud  in  spirit  and  complex  in  his  living.  We 
have  all  seen  men  whose  souls  lessened  as  their 
riches  gr eaten  ed.  All  these  are  illustrations 
of  Jesus's  teaching  about  "the  deceitfulness 
of  riches.'^  The  tragic  thing  is  that  the  men 
who  are  the  victims  of  the  deceitfulness  are 
not  aware  of  the  sad  inner  effects.  Men  do 
not  know  that  they  are  stingy;  they  are  only 
prudent  and  economical !  So  runs  the  miser- 
able deceit.  It  requires  a  moment  of  marked 
self -revelation  to  enable  these  men  to  classify 
themselves  with  truth.  Over  the  Bank  of 
England  men  read  the  words,  "The  Earth  is 


176  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

the  Lord's."  This  describes  the  source  of 
wealth.  Over  many  financial  institutions  it 
might  be  good  to  put  another  motto  as  a  re- 
minder of  a  possible  effect  of  wealth,  "The 
Deceitfulness  of  Riches." 

We  now  face  the  utterance  of  Christ  with 
reference  to  a  double  mastery  over  life.  He 
asserts  that  "no  man  can  serve  two  masters," 
without  love  for  the  one  and  hatred  for  the 
other.  When  he  seeks  for  the  power  that  is 
most  likely  to  contest  with  God  for  the  al- 
legiance of  man  he  selects  Mammon.  Hence 
he  states  the  dilemma  without  modification, 
"Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon."  He 
did  not  select  Pleasure  as  the  opponent  of 
God,  nor  Ambition,  nor  Impurity,  nor  Dis- 
honesty. He  saw  clearly  that  Mammon  had 
the  greatest  power  to  draw  men  into  life-long 
"service."  Other  sins  might  be  occasional 
contestants,  but  the  sin  of  greed  was  the  con- 
stant foe  seeking  to  cleave  the  loyalty  of  men. 
Jesus  did  not  say  that  we  could  not  serve  God 
with  Mammon.  Elsewhere  he  says  the  very 
opposite  of  that.  But  he  did  say  unequivo- 
cally, "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon." 
Perhaps  these  six  words,  more  nearly  than 
any  other,  give  us  the  heart  of  Jesus's  teach- 
ing about  wealth.  They  state  in  simple  and 
direct  form  the  alternatives  for  many  lives. 
We  can  serve  God  with  Mammon.     We  can 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        177 

serve  God  or  Mammon.  We  cannot  serve  God 
and  Mammon.  What  Christ  states  as  an  im- 
possibility many  men  try  to  accomplish.  We 
see  the  vain  efforts  daily — men  putting  their 
greatest  diligence  into  the  market  place  as  an 
end,  with  an  occasional  tribute  to  the  temple. 
This  is  the  most  frequent  form  of  the  ^'double 
life."  It  is  the  poor  compromise  of  a  half- 
hearted or  tenth-hearted  service.  Jesus  said 
that  God  or  Mammon  must  win  the  whole 
man.  The  God  and  the  god  cannot  dwell  in 
the  same  heart.  Jesus  here  thrusts  us  back 
to  the  original  biblical  principle:  God  is  the 
Absolute  Owner.  He  will  not  share  his  rule. 
He  will  not  partition  his  empire.  Mammon 
must  yield  to  God.  Thus  Jesus  enters  all 
markets  and  counting  rooms  and  banks  with 
his  demand  for  undivided  hearts  and  undi- 
vided lives. 

There  is  another  saying  of  Jesus  which  is 
more  frequently  quoted,  both  because  it  is  in 
itself  so  radical  and  because  it  is  accompanied 
by  a  vigorous  figure  of  speech.  Besides  these 
two  attractions,  the  words  have  an  appealing 
setting  in  a  human  life.  The  young  ruler 
comes  to  Jesus  with  his  eager  question.  He 
stands  before  the  Lord  as  a  fine  type  of  promis- 
ing manhood — fresh,  alert,  clean,  and  even 
reverent.  He  is  able  to  say,  without  rebuke, 
that  from  his  youth  up  he  has  kept  the  com- 


178  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

mandments  and  that  Ms  life  has  moved  on  a 
high  grade  of  morals.  The  record  tells  us 
that  "Jesus,  looking  upon  him,  loved  him.'' 
But  in  this  instance,  instead  of  meeting  the 
young  man's  question  with  the  demand  for  a 
new  birth,  as  Jesus  did  with  Mcodemus,  or 
with  the  acceptance  of  hospitality,  as  Jesus 
did  with  Zaccheus,  Jesus  asked  that  he  sell 
all  his  goods  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  that 
then  he  should  follow  the  Lord  in  his  home- 
less life.  Often  the  comment  omits  this  last 
demand.  It  may  be  that  it  is  the  more  im- 
portant demand,  and  that  it  is  the  reason  for 
the  minor  requirement.  Other  disciples  had 
left  all  in  order  to  follow  Jesus ;  and  this  man 
was  now  asked  to  do  likewise.  Evidently  the 
teaching  here  has  the  individual  quality. 
Christ  knew  that  the  young  man  had  set  his 
heart  on  his  riches,  and  that  the  only  way  to 
a  true  discipleship  was  through  utter  sur- 
render. 

We  cannot  read  the  story  without  feeling  a 
measure  of  sympathy  for  the  young  ruler ;  and 
we  may  confess  that  we  ourselves  would 
scarcely  have  been  equal  to  the  severe  test. 
The  situation,  however,  can  be  estimated  in 
another  way — not  by  our  imagination,  but  by 
our  admiration.  Certain  men  in  Christian 
history  have  done  exactly  what  Jesus  asked 
this  young  man  to  do.     John  Wesley  did  it; 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        179 

making  much  money,  he  continued  to  live  on 
his  allowance  of  twenty-eight  pounds  a  year 
and  gave  the  rest  to  a  needy  world.  When  he 
was  an  old  man  he  wrote  to  the  assessor  that 
his  taxable  property  consisted  of  two  silver 
spoons  at  Bristol!  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi 
gave  up  all  his  earthly  possessions.  At  the 
altar  of  the  church  he  deliberately  took 
poverty  as  his  bride.  The  heroes  of  complete 
renunciation  have  been  many ;  and  the  world's 
verdict  has  not  been  that  they  were  fanatics. 
They  heard  the  call  of  God  that  they  should 
surrender  all  and  give  to  the  various  kinds  of 
poor ;  they  heeded  the  command,  and  they  won 
their  fame  by  their  surrender.  We  can  make 
a  more  direct  test  than  this.  If  this  young 
man  had  heeded  Christ's  word,  and  had  given 
all  that  he  had  to  the  poor,  and  had  followed 
the  Lord — what  would  have  been  the  result? 
Would  he  have  won  the  w^orld's  admiration  by 
his  self-renunciation?  Would  he  now  be 
known  only  by  the  virtually  anonymous  title 
of  "a  certain  ruler"?  We  can  see  that  he  was 
offered  a  wonderful  opportunity.  He  would 
have  been  enrolled  among  the  saints  of  the 
early  church,  if  he  had  risen  to  the  higher 
choice.  An  English  writer  has  pointed  out 
that  the  young  man  was  not  angered  by  the 
word  of  Christ;  he  was  "saddened."  He  went 
away  "sorrowful,"  and  his  sorrow  was  for 


180  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

himself.  He  went  back  to  his  riches  and  was 
lost  to  the  sight  of  the  world.  He  is  now 
known  even  anonymously  only  because  he  had 
a  brief  conversation  with  One  who  had  not 
where  to  lay  his  head. 

Jesus  saw  the  young  man's  retreating  figure 
and  then  spoke  his  own  "sorrowful^'  exclama- 
tion, "How  hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God !''  The  account 
in  the  Gospel  of  Mark  indicates  that  the  dis- 
ciples were  "amazed"  by  the  saying,  just  as 
the  men  of  the  world  have  wondered  ever 
since.  Seeing  this  amazement,  Jesus  added, 
"Children,  how  hard  is  it  for  them  that  trust 
in  riches  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God! 
It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye 
of  a  needle,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God.''  It  was  a  startling 
figure  of  speech — an  hyperbole,  as  the  later 
conversation  with  the  disciples  would  show, 
unless,  indeed,  the  saying  refers  to  a  certain 
gate  of  the  city  through  which  only  the  un- 
burdened camel  could  enter.  This  figure  of 
speech  has  held  the  attention  of  the  world  for 
centuries.  Strangely  enough,  the  nineteenth 
century  had  a  peculiar  illustration  of  an 
accommodated  meaning  of  the  word  "needle." 
We  cannot  help  wondering  what  the  people 
of  many  generations  hence  would  think  if  they 
were  to  read  in  ancient  history  that  in  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        181 

latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  certain 
millionaire  paid  more  than  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  for  bringing  Cleopatra's  "needle" 
to  America.  Superficial  as  the  suggestion  is, 
it  illustrates  the  manner  in  which  a  figure  of 
speech  could  easily  be  pulled  off  into  a  path 
of  false  literalism. 

But  if  we  take  the  view  that  the  expression 
was  either  a  vivid  hyperbole  or  the  description 
of  a  local  gate,  the  warning  still  abides  in 
strength.  It  is  hard  for  a  rich  man  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  is  sometimes  very 
hard  for  him  to  remain  there  when  his  en- 
trance into  the  kingdom  preceded  his  entrance 
into  wealth.  Experienced  pastors  will  tell 
us  that  not  many  wealthy  are  called.  Yet 
Jesus  distinctly  declared  that  the  rich  could 
enter  into  the  Kingdom.  The  disciples,  "aston- 
ished out  of  measure,"  said,  "Who,  then,  can 
be  saved?"  Jesus  replied,  "With  men  it  is 
impossible,  but  not  with  God:  for  with  God 
all  things  are  possible."  It  is  not  right  that 
the  man  who  clamors  against  the  rich  should 
omit  this  assurance  from  the  teaching.  Jesus 
says  that  a  rich  man  can  be  brought  into  the 
Kingdom.  He  offers  this  as  one  of  the  evi- 
dences of  the  divine  omnipotence — that  the 
power  of  God  can  break  through  the  com- 
placency, the  self-content,  the  tangle  of 
materialism,    and    can    win    men    from    the 


182  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

idolatry  of  gold  to  the  love  and  worship  of 
God. 

This  message  of  Jesus  to  the  young  ruler, 
and  through  him  to  the  world,  is  not  always 
welcome  to  the  ears  of  the  rich.  The  religious 
teacher  may  be  tempted  to  discount  its  mean- 
ing and  to  relieve  in  some  way  the  severity  of 
the  words.  Yet  an  age  of  growing  wealth 
needs  this  lesson,  and  needs  it  with  an  in- 
creased emphasis.  The  trend  of  the  Bible 
serves  as  a  commentary  on  the  same  lesson. 
If  the  Bible  is  to  serve  as  the  book  of  guidance, 
then  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  the  path 
of  material  wealth  is  the  path  of  spiritual 
peril. 

If  we  halted  our  lesson  here,  we  should  be 
guilty  of  a  partial  use  of  the  Bible.  The 
fourth  principle  of  the  great  Book  is  that  the 
stewardship  of  wealth  offers  glorious  oppor- 
tunities. It  offers  the  opportunity  of  aiding 
the  poor.  John  wrote,  "Whoso  hath  this 
world's  good,  and  seeth  his  brother  have 
need,  and  shutteth  up  his  bowels  of  compas- 
sion from  him,  how  dwelleth  the  love  of  God 
in  him?''  It  offers  the  opportunity  of  caring 
for  the  unfortunate,  as  illustrated  in  the  par- 
able of  the  good  Samaritan.  When  Jesus 
uttered  this  parable,  he  laid  the  foundations 
of  many  hospitals.  It  offers  the  opportunity 
of  paying  personal  tributes  of  affection,  as 


THE  BIBLE  AND  WEALTH        183 

exemplified  in  the  offering  to  the  Lord  of  the 
precious  ointment.  It  offers  the  opportunity 
of  furnishing  honest  employment  as  a  field  of 
personal  fidelity,  as  taught  in  the  parables  of 
the  talents  and  the  pounds.  It  offers  the 
opportunity  of  projecting  our  influence  to  the 
ends  of  the  world,  as  taught  by  those  who 
aided  Paul  on  his  missionary  journeys  and  by 
those  who  sent  gifts  whereby  the  gospel  should 
be  promoted  in  all  the  earth.  But  the  Bible 
does  not  give  any  set  of  rules  for  the  use  of 
wealth.  It  asserts  the  primacy  of  God.  It 
commands  the  spirit  of  love.  It  stresses  the 
probationary  character  of  possessions.  It  de- 
clares in  the  word  of  Christ  that  any  man 
makes  a  disastrous  bargain  who  gains  the 
whole  world  and  in  the  transaction  loses 
himself. 

Finally  Jesus  relates  our  use  of  money  to 
the  eternal  issues.  He  does  this  in  a  very 
simple  and  direct  way,  and  in  the  form  of  an 
imperative.  In  the  more  skilled  translation 
of  the  Revised  Version  we  read,  "Make  to 
yourselves  friends  by  means  of  the  mammon 
of  unrighteousness,  that  when  it  shall  fail, 
they  may  receive  you  into  the  eternal  taber- 
nacles.'' It  appears  here  that  worldly  posses- 
sions may  be  either  "the  mammon  of  un- 
righteousness" or  the  maker  of  everlasting 
friendships.     By  the  right  use  of  gold  and 


184  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

silver  men  can  people  the  gates  of  heaven 
with  welcomers.  "It  shall  fail,"  says  Christ, 
referring  to  wealth.  "They  may  receive  you," 
he  says,  referring  to  those  human  lives  that 
are  our  only  permanent  investments.  The 
final  emphasis  of  Jesus  in  giving  the  very 
crown  of  the  Bible  teaching  concerning  wealth, 
great  or  small,  is  that  his  followers  shall  so 
use  the  coin  stamped  with  the  image  of  some 
earthly  Caesar  as  to  produce  in  men  and 
women  and  children  the  image  of  the  heavenly 
Lord.  The  lower  commerce  is  to  serve  the 
higher  commerce.  Faneuil  Hall  may  keep  its 
market  place,  but  it  must  be  subordinated  to 
that  upper  room  wherein  men  learn  the  les- 
sons of  truth  and  liberty  and  righteousness. 
The  Age  of  Gold  can  help  to  make  the  Golden 
Age.  The  problem  of  wealth  will  not  be  solved 
until  all  men  hold  their  riches  as  willing 
trustees  of  Him  who  himself  was  rich  and 
who  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we 
through  his  poverty  might  be  rich. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Bible  and  Sorrow 

One  who  is  jealous  for  the  reputation  of 
the  Bible  as  a  complete  Book  of  life  must 
sometimes  feel  that  undue  emphasis  has  been 
placed  upon  its  messages  for  the  sorrowing. 
If  the  jealousy  does  not  entertain  just  this 
feeling,  it  has  the  resembling  fear — that  the 
biblical  message  for  sorrow  has  been  empha- 
sized until  it  has  hidden  the  message  for  glad- 
ness. As  a  necessary  prelude  to  a  discussion 
of  the  Bible^s  relation  to  the  sorrow  of  the 
world,  we  shall  treat  its  meaning  for  the 
world's  gladness.  We  are  willing  to  use  the 
word  "pleasure"  in  this  connection,  though 
pleasure  is  classed  as  representing  a  mood 
less  deep  than  the  mood  of  joy.  Some  of  us 
can  recall  the  surprise  we  experienced  in  read- 
ing Lubbock's  The  Pleasures  of  Life.  One 
chapter  dealt  with  "The  Pleasure  of  Duty." 
This  title  caused  us  no  wonder.  But  the 
next  chapter  astonished  us  with  the  heading, 
"The  Duty  of  Pleasure."  We  quickly  found 
ourselves  asking  whether  there  was  such  a 
duty.  Is  it  an  obligation  laid  on  men  and 
185 


186  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

women  to  seek  for  a  proportion  of  pleasure? 
Are  the  light  joys  of  life  to  be  classed  with 
our  duties?  Lubbock  answered  these  ques- 
tions in  the  affirmative.  What  reply  does  the 
Bible  give? 

Certainly  we  can  say  in  the  beginning  that, 
if  we  take  a  review  of  its  pages,  the  Bible 
does  not  impress  us  as  being  a  mournful  book. 
This  is  significant  when  we  note  the  fact  that 
its  pages  were  all  written  by  mature  and 
serious  persons.  Even  more,  the  pages  were 
written  with  reference  to  some  of  the  most 
serious  and  sacred  elements  and  events  in  life. 
Vast  solemnities  evoked  many  sections  of  the 
Bible.  We  should  expect  that  the  seriousness 
of  the  authors  and  the  critical  importance  of 
the  events  would  touch  the  Book  and  would 
dominate  its  spirit.  It  is  even  so.  Our 
worthier  thought  would  not  have  it  otherwise. 
If  the  Bible  had  been  simply  the  inspiration 
and  guide  for  the  world's  playgrounds,  it 
would  have  lost  the  most  of  its  soul. 

For  a  volume  whose  materials  were  jokes 
and  whose  primary  purpose  was  laughter 
might  have  a  legitimate  mission,  but  it  would 
have  difficulty  in  being  rated  as  redemptive 
literature.  The  real  humorist  is  doubtless 
one  of  God's  agents  in  lifting  the  troubles  of 
mankind;  but  Providence  sees  to  it  that 
humorists  are  not  so  plentiful  as  to  destroy 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW         187 

our  sense  of  proportion.  Each  generation  is 
granted  a  small  group  of  men  who  set  the 
world  aglee  and  become  the  distributors  of 
smiles  and  laughter.  The  appreciation  of 
humor,  also,  is  placed  in  the  nature  of  each 
normal  person;  but  the  continual  demand  for 
humor  becomes  a  plague.  Men  know  instinc- 
tively that  for  the  greatest  things  it  will  not 
suffice.  There  is  a  story  to  the  effect  that  one 
of  the  most  renowned  Americans  was  not 
allowed  to  write  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence because  it  was  feared  that  he  might 
work  a  joke  into  the  historic  document.  True 
or  false,  the  story  stands  for  a  fact — that 
humor  is  a  secondary  form  of  service  and  that 
the  big  crises  insist  that  humor  shall  stay  in 
its  own  realm. 

None  the  less  the  Bible  is  not  a  stranger  to 
the  play  element.  As  we  march  through  its 
life  we  see  smiles  and  hear  laughter.  Children 
are  there  in  their  careless  gladness.  Young 
men  and  maidens  are  there  in  their  innocent 
pleasures.  Games  are  there  with  their  de- 
light of  striving.  Parties  are  there  with  their 
gayety  and  music.  We  pass  through  pages 
of  darkness  only  to  emerge  into  pages  of  sun- 
shine. We  sit  down  at  Marah  and  find  the 
brackish  and  bitter  waters  and  hear  the  mur- 
muring of  the  Israelites.  But  the  next  day 
we  come  to  Elim,  with  its  twelve  pure  and 


188  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

gushing  wells  and  its  threescore  and  ten  palm 
trees.  This  transition  is  what  we  would 
anticipate  in  a  Book  of  real  life,  and  it  is  what 
fits  the  Bible  to  be  the  guide  of  total  life.  A 
joyless  book  could  not  control  a  joyful  world; 
neither  could  a  sorrowless  book  control  a  sor- 
rowful world.  The  Bible  must  have  a  message 
for  both  types  of  experience. 

There  is  a  theological  reason  for  this  two- 
fold message.  We  have  been  told  by  our  reli- 
gious teachers  that  Christ,  being  tempted,  can 
succor  those  that  are  tempted.  The  Man  of 
Sorrows  can  save  the  people  of  sorrows.  The 
High  Priest  is  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
our  infirmities.  The  Captain  of  our  salva- 
tion was  made  perfect  through  suffering.  He 
learned  obedience  through  the  things  he  suf- 
fered. The  world  is  made  acquainted  with 
the  sorroTving  Saviour  of  the  sorrowing  world. 
Still  we  have  been  slow  to  apply  our  theology 
to  the  other  side  of  life.  The  forged  letter  of 
Publius  Lentulus  stated  that  Jesus  had  often 
been  seen  to  weep,  but  never  to  smile!  The 
mischief  of  such  a  misconception  is  apparent. 
It  provides  for  a  mutilated  theology.  It  gives 
the  world  a  fractional  Christ.  It  leaves  the 
hour  of  gladness  without  its  Exemplar.  It 
gives  comfort  for  a  funeral,  but  no  companion- 
ship for  a  feast.  In  the  average  life  the  realm 
of  joy  is  larger  than  the  realm  of  sorrow. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        189 

Few  people  would  declare  that  with  them  sad- 
ness had  exceeded  gladness.  The  world  needs 
to-day  the  Saviour  of  the  joyful,  even  as  it 
needs  the  Saviour  of  the  sorrowful.  Joy  that 
refuses  to  be  curbed  needs  saving  power  just 
as  does  sorrow  that  refuses  to  be  comforted. 
We  need  not  enter  into  any  needless  com- 
parison and  try  to  state  which  has  the  more 
need.  It  is  sufficient  to  affirm  that  a  com- 
plete Bible  must  take  account  of  pleasures  and 
joys,  if  these  are  to  be  counted  among  the 
divinely  appointed  experiences  of  life. 

We  do  not  long  study  the  Bible  without 
becoming  aware  of  its  law  of  proportion.  It 
gives  the  word  in  season,  and  it  gives  the  word 
in  measure.  Hence  its  aim  is  to  cultivate  pro- 
portion in  human  lives.  Its  ideal  is  the  ideal 
of  a  holy  God,  that  is,  of  One  with  a  perfect 
balance  of  the  infinite  nature.  Its  ideal  for 
man  must,  therefore,  be  that  man  shall  gain 
for  himself  that  balance  in  the  human  realm 
that  God  has  in  his  divine  realm.  For  this 
reason  the  Bible  is  a  curber  of  excesses,  a 
restorer  of  proportions.  It  gives  here  its 
largest  lesson  for  pleasure.  Recognizing  its 
legitimacy,  it  recognizes  its  limits  as  well.  As 
an  example  from  both  Testaments  w^e  may 
give  a  statement  of  conduct  that  receives  re- 
buke from  Moses  and  from  Paul.  It  is  re- 
corded in  Exodus  that,  after  their  riotings 


190  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

with  the  golden  calf,  the  Israelites  proceeded 
to  engage  in  riotings  of  pleasure.  The  ancient 
account  puts  it,  "The  people  sat  down  to  eat 
and  to  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play."  Saint 
Paul  quotes  it  in  First  Corinthians  in  pre- 
cisely its  original  form.  In  the  early  account 
the  rebuke  of  the  Lord  awaits  the  people.  In 
the  later  account  the  apostle  makes  the  con- 
duct the  natural  accompaniment  of  idolatry, 
as  if  indeed  the  worship  of  an  image  would 
issue  into  the  idolatry  of  the  table  and  the 
playground.  Now  eating  and  drinking  are 
not  only  good;  they  are  necessary.  Play  is 
not  only  good;  it  is  necessary.  The  Bible 
declares  that  food  and  water  are  the  gifts  of 
God,  and  it  makes  them  symbols  of  God's 
deeper  benevolence.  Nor  does  the  Bible  ever 
condemn  play.  On  the  contrary,  it  represents 
the  streets  of  the  Holy  City  as  filled  with 
playing  children.  The  trouble,  then,  must 
have  been  in  the  lack  of  proportion  as  well 
as  in  the  lack  of  a  good  motive.  The  people 
sat  down  to  eat  and  drink,  and  they  rose  up 
to  play.  This  is  to  say  that  the  two  con- 
stant movements  of  life  were  monopolized  by 
appetite  and  sport.  The  Israelites  ate  to  play, 
and  they  played  to  eat.  Two  things  intended 
to  be  legitimate  portions  of  life  became  its 
illegitimate  entirety.  Designed  to  be  preludes, 
eating  and  drinking  and  playing  became  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW         191 

whole  program.  Life  consisted  in  the  satisfac- 
tion of  two  ranges  of  desire.  The  demand  of 
Moses  and  Paul  was  not  that  eating  and  drink- 
ing and  playing  should  be  abolished,  but  that 
they  should  be  pushed  back  into  their  just 
proportions  as  worthy  departments  of  living. 
The  glutton  of  food  and  the  glutton  of  play 
are  both  condemned  by  the  Bible. 

There  are  those  who  say  that  one  of  the 
crying  evils  of  our  own  day  is  that  the  people 
are  appetite-mad  and  pleasure-mad.  Probably 
some  men  in  every  age  have  brought  this 
charge  against  their  time;  and  the  charge  is 
true  as  applied  to  some  persons  in  each  period. 
For  such  the  Bible  has  its  repeated  warning. 
They  who  are  lovers  of  ]3leasure  more  than  of 
God  fall  under  condemnation.  Mankind  has 
never  long  admired  the  eaters  and  players  of 
history.  If  it  remembers  Beau  Brummel  and 
Beau  Nash  at  all,  it  enrolls  them  in  its  lists 
of  ridicule.  An  epitaph  which  recorded  that 
"He  ate  much  of  the  time  and  played  the 
rest  of  the  time,''  would  not  serve  to  enroll  a 
man  among  the  earth's  heroes!  The  Bible 
and  humanity  are  against  the  unbalanced  de- 
votees of  the  table  and  the  parlor  and  the 
field  of  sports. 

But  the  Bible  and  humanity  unite  again  in 
their  estimate  of  the  other  extreme.  The  mere 
ascetic  secures  curiosity  rather  than  admira- 


192  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

tion.  He  has  not  learned  how  to  follow  Him 
who  often  went  to  feasts  and  who  sat  down 
with  his  friends  at  the  supper  which  they 
gave  him  at  Bethany.  It  is  said  of  him  that 
"he  was  anointed  with  the  oil  of  joy  above 
his  fellows."  Jesus  entered  into  the  normal 
joys  of  life.  He  came  eating  and  drinking, 
until  his  enemies  seized  upon  his  conduct  and 
exaggerated  it  into  a  charge  against  him.  He 
was  present  at  weddings  where  joy  reigned 
supreme.  In  all  his  teaching  and  by  all  his 
example  he  never  proved  himself  an  enemy  to 
the  normal  pleasures  of  life.  This  particular 
emphasis  is  occasionally  needed.  It  may  not 
have  as  large  a  mission  as  has  the  warning 
against  overdone  appetite  and  play ;  but  it  has 
its  message  to  that  smaller  circle  of  the  de- 
ceived who  would  drive  joy  from  the  world 
in  the  name  of  Christ.  One  of  the  hymns 
declares : 

The  brightest  things  below  the  sky 
Yield  but  a  flattering  light; 

We  should  suspect  some  danger  nigh 
Where  we  possess  delight. 

There  is  something  morbid  in  this  conception. 
The  invitation  to  the  religious  life  becomes 
gruesome.  The  sister  of  Pascal  cared  for  him 
through  a  long  and  serious  illness.  Pascal 
came  to  love  her  so  much  that  he  feared  that 
his  affection  was  wicked.     In  a  gloomy  hour 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW         193 

he  wrote  in  his  diary  these  words,  "Lord,  for- 
give me  for  loving  my  dear  sister  so  much  I'' 
Afterward  his  abnormal  conscience  worked 
again,  and  Pascal  actually  erased  the  word 
"dear."  For  such  moods  the  Bible  has  a 
lesson.  God  "giveth  us  richly  all  things  to 
enjoy."  We  would  think  it  small  glory  for 
ourselves  if  our  children  should  push  our  gifts 
away  from  their  little  hands  with  the  idea  that 
those  selected  gifts  were  perilous.  God  fills 
the  world  with  possibilities  of  pleasure.  Food 
and  drink  are  not  negative  and  tasteless.  The 
paths  of  earth  are  not  flowerless.  Voices  are 
not  wdthout  music.  Companionship  is  not  life- 
less. The  Bible  is  the  foe  of  wicked  pleasure. 
The  Bible  is  the  foe  of  excessive  pleasure.  The 
Bible  is  the  friend  of  legitimate  and  propor- 
tionate pleasure. 

But  while  pleasure  needs  to  be  guarded 
and  curbed,  it  is  not  either  a  burden  to  be 
lifted  or  a  pain  to  be  endured.  Sorrow  is 
both.  Therefore  sorrow  demands  some  posi- 
tive services  from  the  Bible.  We  may  be  im- 
patient with  those  doleful  folks  who  speak  of 
this  world  as  a  vale  of  tears  or  as  a  wilderness 
of  woe!  We  may  be  inclined  to  quote  the 
lines : 

I  think  we  are  too  ready  with  complaint 
In  this  fair  world  of  God's. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  well  to  remember 


194  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

that  the  young,  especially,  see  life  almost  ex- 
clusively from  the  standpoint  of  hope  and 
courage.  The  minister  of  the  gospel  begins  to 
feel,  when  he  reaches  the  age  of  forty,  that  he 
has  not  given  enough  comfort  to  his  people. 
As  he  identifies  himself  closely  with  their  lives 
he  finds  that  most  homes  carry  some  secret 
sorrow  and  that  most  men  and  women  have 
their  own  personal  tragedies.  You  will  recall 
the  myth  about  the  boatman  whose  duty  it  was 
to  carry  over  the  Styx  the  souls  who  departed 
from  earth.  He  noticed  that  these  souls 
mourned  much  and  took  the  voyage  unwill- 
ingly. He  thought  that  it  must  be  a  very 
beautiful  and  joyful  land  that  laid  such  hold 
on  their  hearts.  So  he  secured  leave  of 
absence  from  his  post  of  duty  and  made  an 
excursion  into  the  world.  He  discovered  that 
for  every  birth  there  must  eventually  be  a 
death;  that  every  home  that  was  made  must 
in  due  season  be  broken ;  that  men  and  women 
were  troubled  and  maimed  and  sick.  On  all 
sides  he  saw  the  evidences  of  sorrow.  He 
went  back  to  his  ferry  greatly  wondering  why 
people  should  be  sad  because  they  left  a  sad 
world.  This  mythical  picture  is  overdrawn, 
but  it  has  its  suggestion  of  truth.  Earth  does 
have  its  manifold  sorrows.  If  all  the  burdens 
and  pains  and  problems  and  anguishes  of  a 
single  day  could  focus  their  influence  upon 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW         195 

any  single  life,  the  result  would  be  either  a 
broken  heart  or  an  insane  mind. 

The  Bible  does  not  make  light  of  sorrows. 
Its  heroes  have  their  troubles.  Call  the  roll  of 
its  sons  and  daughters  and  you  will  find  that 
at  some  time  each  one  of  them  was  a  child  of 
grief.  The  Book  does  not  assign  burden  and 
pain  and  sorrow  to  the  class  of  unrealities. 
Neither  does  it  assign  them  to  the  class  of 
negations.  In  the  Bible  sorrow  is  real  and 
sorrow  is  positive.  When  Rachel  weeps  for 
her  children,  the  scene  is  real.  When  David 
goes  into  the  room  in  the  tower  over  the  gate 
and  utters  his  pitiful  lament  over  Absalom, 
the  Book  does  not  describe  his  anguish  as  an 
illusion.  Paul's  hunger  and  thirst,  and  stripes 
and  shipwrecks,  and  perils  and  imprison- 
ments were  not  the  vain  froth  of  a  mortal 
mind.  Jesus's  cross,  and  the  thorns  and  the 
nails  and  the  spear,  and  the  tauntings  of  the 
passers-by,  and  the  thirst,  and  the  darkened 
face  of  the  Father  were  not  swept  into  the 
void  by  reciting  a  formula  about  the  All. 
Jesus  gave  a  promise  to  his  disciples,  "In  the 
world  ye  shall  have  tribulation."  He  kept  that 
promise.  They  walked  the  ways  of  martyr- 
dom. Their  spirits  won  victories  over  their 
flesh.  Yet  there  is  no  hint  that  their  persecu- 
tions and  deaths  were  the  fictions  of  error  or 
the  dreams  of  a  night  that  did  not  exist.    The 


196  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Bible,  being  real,  ministers  to  sorrow  that  is 
real. 

The  Book,  too,  touches  on  all  the  phases  of 
comfort  that  we  may  gather  from  the  surface 
of  life,  only  it  does  not  make  them  either  a 
full  gospel  of  consolation  or  a  large  part  of 
that  gospel.  Sometimes  a  word  of  Scripture 
will  suggest  the  method  of  comparison  implied 
in  the  statement,  ^^It  might  be  worse."  Paul 
does  this  with  one  quick  word.  "Our  light 
affliction,''  he  puts  it.  We  have  lost  one  hand ; 
we  might  have  lost  two!  We  have  lost  one 
eye ;  we  might  have  lost  both !  We  have  been 
sick  one  week;  it  might  have  been  a  year! 
Sometimes  this  method  carries  us  off  into 
rather  graceless  comparisons  of  ourselves  with 
other  people  as  if,  indeed,  we  were  divine 
favorites.  Can  a  man  prove  more  divine  provi- 
dence for  himself  by  assuming  that  there  is 
less  for  another  person?  This  road  of  com- 
parison leads  to  phariseeism  unless  we  watch 
carefully  against  a  despicable  by-path.  Tenny- 
son in  his  "In  Memoriam,''  which  is  a  poem 
of  comfort,  shows  much  impatience  with  this 
false  form  of  consolation : 


One  writes,  "that  other  friends  remain/ 
That  loss  is  common  to  the  race; 
And  common  is  the  commonplace, 

And  vacant  chaff  well  meant  for  grain. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW         197 

That  loss  is  common  would  not  make 

My  own  less  bitter,  rather  more; 

Too  common!     Never  morning  wore 
To  evening  but  some  heart  did  break. 

This  method  of  comparison  is  inadequate. 
Whether  the  word  "light' ^  makes  our  imagina- 
tion furnish  the  details  of  the  worse  afiliction, 
or  whether  it  contrasts  our  sorrows  with  the 
greater  sorrows  of  others,  it  does  not  do 
enough  for  our  smitten  hearts. 

Nor  are  we  fully  satisfied  with  the  plea  that 
sorrow  is  but  "for  a  moment"  and  that  we 
can  be  thankful  for  its  brevity.  There  is 
comfort  here,  to  be  sure,  but  it  has  no  final 
quality.  Paul  knew  that,  and  so  he  gave  the 
idea  an  incidental  part  of  a  sentence,  and  then 
went  on  to  the  deeper  consolation.  One  poet 
puts  it : 

Since  the  scope 
Must  widen  early,  is  it  well  to  droop 
For  a  few  days  consumed  in  loss  and  taint? 
O  pusillanimous  heart!  be  comforted; 
And  like  a  cheerful  traveler,  take  the  road, 
Singing  beside  the  hedge.    What  if  the  bread 
Be  bitter  in  thine  inn,  and  thou  unshod 
To  meet  the  flints?    At  least  it  may  be  said, 
"Because  the  way  is  short,  I  thank  thee,  God." 

The  truth  is  that  there  is  real  comfort  in  all 
this  only  when  pain's  brevity  contributes 
something  to  the  good  of  the  years  and  even 
to  eternity.  Thus  the  Bible  does  not  give  much 


198  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

space  to  the  slight  comforts  of  either  compari- 
son or  brevity.  These  have  their  function,  but 
they  are  the  small  helpers  of  the  larger 
consolations. 

The  Bible  likewise  gives  as  one  of  the  com- 
forts of  sorrow  that  sorrow  prepares  us  to 
console  others'  sorrows.  Saint  Paul  uses  this 
in  his  message  to  the  Corinthians:  "Blessed 
be  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Father  of  mercies,  and  the  God 
of  all  comfort;  who  comforteth  us  in  all  our 
tribulations,  that  we  may  be  able  to  comfort 
them  which  are  in  any  trouble,  by  the  comfort 
wherewith  we  ourselves  are  comforted  of 
God."  Here  we  are  pushed  back  to  the 
deepest  sources  of  comfort.  God  comforts  the 
sorrowful  in  order  that  other  sorrowful  ones 
may  have  comfort.  The  consolers  are  dele- 
gated by  the  great  Consoler.  It  requires  this 
reach  clear  back  to  the  heart  of  God  to  rescue 
this  suggestion  from  the  superficial.  One  man 
has  sorrow.  He  consoles  others  who  have 
sorrow.  Then  you  have  two  sorrows  in  your 
problem.  In  this  way  you  would  keep  playing 
off  sorrow  against  sorrow,  without  any  funda- 
mental explanation  of  any  sorrow.  The  ques- 
tion is.  Why  any  sorrow  at  all?  If  one  of  the 
by-products  of  sorrow  is  the  power  to  comfort 
the  sorrowing,  we  must  still  find  some  main 
product  that  will  put  the  two  sorrows  to- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW         199 

gether  in  a  meaning  of  good.  The  God  of 
comfort  must  preside  over  both  sorrows  ere 
either  sorrow  shall  yield  its  contribution  to 
the  sufferer.  Paul  saw  this,  and  so  he  re- 
lated our  power  to  comfort  others  to  the  fact 
that  we  had  gotten  our  comfort  from  the 
Father  of  all  consolation. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  the  Scriptures  give 
place  to  all  the  minor  elements  in  the  ministry 
of  sorrow.  Its  comparative  lightness,  its  sure 
brevity,  and  its  tuition  for  sympathy  have 
their  part  in  the  Bible  curriculum.  The 
Scriptures  also  move  onward  to  the  vision  of 
a  God  who  cares.  ^'Like  as  a  father  pitieth'' 
— this  is  the  message  even  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.   It  gives  an  answ^er  to  that  piercing  cry : 

What  can  it  mean?    Is  it  aught  to  Him 
That  the  nights  are  long  and  the  sun  is  dim? 
Can  he  be  touched  by  the  griefs  I  bear 
Which  sadden  the  heart  and  whiten  the  hair? 
Around  his  throno  are  eternal  calms, 
And  glad,  strong  music  of  happy  psalms, 
And  bliss  unruled  by  any  strife! 
How  can  he  care  for  my  little  life? 

The  answer  of  the  Bible  is  the  vision  of  the 
pitying  God.  Our  earthly  friends  have  helped 
us  in  our  sorrows  by  simply  caring.  They 
have  come  to  us  in  the  shadows,  and  their 
words  and  faces  have  told  us  that  they  cared. 
It  is  a  strange  feature  of  human  psychology 


200  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

that  just  this  gives  us  comfort.  Our  friends 
do  not  solve  the  problem  for  us.  They  do  not 
remove  the  cause  of  our  pain.  But  they  feel 
with  us,  and  this  is  aid.  Every  sympathizer 
seems  to  lift  a  bit  of  the  weight  from  our  own 
hearts.  When  the  Bible  gives  us  the  revela- 
tion of  One  who  pitieth  "like  as  a  father 
pitieth,"  it  brings  God  into  that  circle  of 
helpfulness. 

The  lesson  goes  farther  and  deeper  than  this. 
Though  we  have  not  here  used  the  words 
technically,  the  soul's  dictionary  draws  a 
distinction  between  pity  and  sympathy.  The 
pitier  may  never  have  walked  the  way  that 
allows  him  to  understand  our  grief;  the  sym- 
pathizer comes  to  us  from  some  experience 
that  permits  him  to  remember  those  that  are 
in  bonds  as  bound  with  them.  We  cannot 
read  the  Bible  long  ere  we  discover  that  there 
is  in  God  the  capability  of  joy  and  sorrow. 
The  passages  are  abundant  that  justify  this 
statement.  God  can  be  pleased.  God  can  be 
grieved.  If  men  and  women  have  been  made 
in  his  image,  and  if  we  find  in  them  the  capa- 
bility of  pain  and  sorrow,  we  are  driven  to 
the  conclusion  that  something  corresponding 
thereto  must  be  in  the  divine  nature.  The 
father  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son, 
sitting  lonely  and  mournful  in  his  home, 
represents   God.     The  father   in   that   same 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        201 

parable  meeting  his  son  in  the  roadway  and 
giving  him  glad  welcome,  and  calling  to  his 
neighbors,  ^^Rejoice  with  me,"  likewise  repre- 
sents God.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  the 
farther  up  we  go  in  the  grade  of  being,  the 
more  capability  of  pain  and  of  pleasure  do 
we  find.  The  polyp  can  neither  suffer  much 
nor  enjoy  much.  The  oyster  can  enjoy  more 
and  suffer  more.  The  bird  has  its  note  of  joy 
and  its  note  of  pain.  Human  beings  have 
exquisite  powers  of  enjoyment  and  equally 
exquisite  powers  of  suffering.  We  may  well 
believe  that  when  we  reach  the  perfect  being 
of  God  both  of  these  capabilities  come  to  their 
highest.    This  is  the  meaning  of  that  verse: 

Can  it  be,  O  Christ  Eternal, 
That  the  wisest  suffer  most? 
That  the  mark  of  rank  in  nature 
Is  capacity  for  pain? 
That  the  anguish  of  the  singer 
Makes  the  sweetness  of  the  strain? 

We  are  allowed  to  believe,  then,  that  the  pity 
of  God  passes  over  into  sympathy.  We  are 
visited  in  our  sorrows  not  by  a  God  whose 
mood  toward  us  is  abstract,  but  whose  own 
infinite  heart  knows  grief.  "The  human  life 
of  God"  is  a  phrase  that  has  been  used  to 
describe  the  incarnation.  That  phrase  enters 
into  our  problem  here.  If  Jesus  shows  us 
what  God  is  like,  then  the  Christ  who  wept 


202  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

over  Jerusalem  brings  us  one  revelation  of  the 
divine  life.  The  pitying  God  becomes  the 
sympathizing  God. 

The  biblical  lesson  of  comfort  does  not  halt 
even  here.  It  is  given  a  closer  and  more 
personal  quality.  A  pitier  and  sympathizer 
may  be  very  distant,  and  his  aid  may  reach 
us  over  the  abysses.  If  the  Bible  gives  us  the 
vision  of  a  pitying  father,  it  gives  us  also  the 
vision  of  the  God  who  comforteth  even  as  a 
mother  comforteth.  In  the  various  kinds  of 
trouble  men  become  aware  of  reserve  forces 
in  their  nature.  They  endure  what  they 
thought  they  could  not  endure.  In  crisis  times 
the  muscles  secure  extra  strength,  the  mind 
secures  extra  alertness,  and  the  spirit  secures 
extra  power  either  to  do  or  to  bear.  These 
reserves  must  be  of  God's  giving,  whether  they 
lie  ready  in  the  nature  always,  or  are  special 
gifts  sent  direct  to  help  us  in  the  troublous 
hours.  There  is,  however,  a  still  more  per- 
sonal interpretation  that  the  Bible  offers  for 
these  experiences.  They  are  the  special  visits 
of  God  to  the  afiaicted.  If  the  creed  of  the 
divine  sympathy  gets  its  meaning  from  "the 
human  life  of  God"  as  seen  in  the  incarnation 
of  Christ,  this  part  of  the  creed  gets  its  mean- 
ing from  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It 
is  true  that  the  Greek  word  which  is  translated 
"Comforter''  might  be  given  other  meanings 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        203 

such  as  Adviser  or  Helper.  But  this  does  not 
change  the  point  for  the  present  discussion. 
An  Adviser  in  sorrow  is  a  Comforter,  and  a 
Helper  in  sorrow  is  a  Comforter.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  the  consciousness  of  the  church 
followed  the  translators  eagerly  and  adopted 
the  word  Comforter  as  if  it  met  some  need  of 
life  and  as  if  it  answered  to  some  deep  ex- 
perience of  life.  We  may  not  go  into  a  labored 
discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  We 
may  affirm  that  a  humanity  that  sorrows  is 
glad  for  a  doctrine  of  the  Godhead  that  magni- 
fies the  office  of  consolation.  The  comforting 
quality  in  Barnabas  led  the  early  disciples  to 
change  his  name  from  Joses  to  Barnabas  be- 
cause he  was  a  "son  of  consolation."  They 
rejoiced  in  their  human  comforter.  The 
church  has  ever  found  satisfaction  in  the 
revelation  of  a  divine  Comforter.  In  this 
revelation  it  sees  the  pitying  God  and  the 
sympathizing  God  become  the  Comforting 
God. 

Related  to  this  is  the  scriptural  idea  that 
God  conquers  our  sorrow  not  by  removing  it 
but  by  making  us  equal  to  its  burden.  The 
clearest  concrete  illustration  of  this  is  seen 
in  PauFs  words  about  his  "thorn  in  the  flesh." 
His  thrice-repeated  prayer  was  that  the  thorn 
might  be  removed ;  his  answer  was  that,  while 
the  difficulty  would  not  be  taken  away,  he 


204  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

would  be  given  grace  sufiBcieiit  for  his  triaL 
Paul's  experience  has  impressed  men  as  being 
typical  of  the  inner  kind  of  divine  aid.  The 
sorrow  may  be  of  many  kinds ;  but  the  powers 
of  resistance  are  strengthened  by  the  grace  of 
God  and  the  sorrows  are  borne  in  a  brave  and 
patient  spirit.  Although  the  idea  be  trite,  it 
claims  a  place  in  the  discussion,  as  indeed  it 
was  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  ritual  of  com- 
fort. We  are  not  dealing  with  any  mere  law 
of  reaction.  It  was  not  the  thorn  that  was 
making  Paul  strong;  it  was  God  who  was 
making  Paul  strong  to  endure  the  thorn.  He 
himself  describes  the  transaction  as  if  it  had 
involved  a  direct  gift  of  the  divine  grace,  as 
it  had  involved  a  direct  message  from  the 
divine  heart. 

Yet  great  as  are  all  these  types  of  biblical 
consolation,  we  all  feel  that  we  have  not 
reached  the  conclusion  of  the  matter.  Com- 
parison is  not  enough.  Brevity  does  not  ex- 
plain why  sorrow  should  be  just  brief.  Pity 
does  not  tell  us  why  we  should  need  to  be 
pitied.  Direct  spiritual  reserves  do  not  fully 
justify  the  hard  experience  that  calls  for  them. 
Direct  and  personal  comfort  does  not  solve 
the  problem  since  no  one  would  seek  trouble 
in  order  to  have  the  visits  of  a  comforting 
friend.  The  gaining  of  inner  strength  comes 
nearer  to  a  positive  warrant  for  the  sorrows 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        205 

of  life;  yet  it  does  not  quite  reach  the  satis- 
fying conception.  All  these  things  are  parts 
of  the  program,  but  they  are  not  its  conclu- 
sion. The  tale  of  life's  sorrow  is  not  all  told 
by  their  recital.  The  full  story  we  cannot 
understand  now;  still  we  may  be  able  to 
glimpse  its  meaning.  In  the  epic  of  Job  there 
are  traces  of  the  revelation.  The  patriarch 
gathers  a  harvest  out  of  his  troubles.  They 
never  reach  the  uttermost  extreme.  They  do 
not  last  forever.  They  bring  him  pity,  however 
crude;  sympathy,  however  bungling;  com- 
forters, however  mistaken;  reserve  forces, 
however  tardy;  inner  strength,  however  won. 
But  his  sorrows  do  more  than  this;  they  are 
represented  in  the  last  chapter  as  having  been 
made  the  servant  of  Job.  The  richer  and 
stronger  man  returns  to  the  richer  and 
stronger  life.  The  testings  have  been  turned 
into  gains. 

This  deeper  lesson  of  comfort  is  often  given 
to  us  in  the  Bible  by  means  of  a  very  positive 
verb.  Our  aflOiictions  "work''  for  us.  All 
things  "work"  together  for  us.  As  men  are 
sent  to  the  fields,  and  as  the  forces  of  nature 
are  sent  along  the  wires,  so  sorrows  are  sent 
to  become  our  servants.  This  service  is  not 
inevitable;  it  is  conditioned  on  the  attitude 
of  the  sorrowing  life;  but  it  is  a  very  real 
service  when  the  conditions  are  met.     Our 


206  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

afflictions  work  for  us — when  we  get  the 
spiritual  vision  so  that  we  can  receive  the 
things  that  are  eternal.  All  things  work  to- 
gether for  good  for  us — when  we  fulfill  the 
innermost  requirement  of  loving  God.  The 
condition  in  both  cases  is  located  within  the 
spiritual  life.  This  condition  being  met,  the 
promise  of  the  Bible  is  that  sorrow  is  made 
our  efficient  servant.  Paul  in  his  famous 
verse  of  consolation  states  the  case  with 
marked  confidence.  The  afflictions  work  for 
us  until  they  produce  ^^a  far  more  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory."  Language  could 
scarcely  be  stronger.  Nor  were  the  words 
used  by  one  who  lolled  in  the  high  places  of 
ease  and  delight  and  shouted  down  his  ab- 
stract comforts  to  the  strugglers  in  the  vale. 
The  assurance  to  the  sorrowing  comes  from 
their  comrade.  His  experiences  ranged  all  the 
way  from  the  petty  hardships  of  a  wandering 
life  on  to  the  Appian  Way  and  the  block  of 
death.  It  was  the  sure  faith  of  the  apostle 
that  all  his  sorrows  had  been  made  to  work 
for  him.  He  was  not  their  victim;  he  was 
their  master  and  their  beneficiary. 

The  persons  who  have  seen  much  of  the 
world's  better  living  will  not  deny  this  con- 
ception. Le  Gallienne  in  his  booklet,  If  I 
Were  God,  admits  that  suffering  does  often 
work  toward  the  making  of  character  and  be- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        207 

comes  a  real  servant.  His  skepticism  does 
not  lie  at  this  point.  His  inquiry  is  whether 
a  just  and  good  God  could  not  have  found 
some  easier  way,  some  servant  for  which  we 
would  not  have  to  render  such  a  painful  cost. 
This,  of  course,  is  that  old  method  of  debate 
that  flees  for  refuge  to  some  imaginary  world 
and  conceives  of  people  who  do  not  exist.  Our 
task  is  with  the  people  now  on  earth,  and  with 
them  we  must  deal  in  our  efforts  at  consola- 
tion. Some  of  them  we  have  seen  driven  to 
bitterness  of  spirit  by  their  sorrow.  They 
themselves  made  sorrow  an  evil  servant  which 
filled  the  garden  of  life  with  noxious  weeds, 
shut  the  windows  of  hope  in  the  home  of  life, 
put  the  poison  of  despair  into  the  water  of 
life,  and  spread  the  clouds  of  gloom  over  all 
the  sky  of  life.  Others  we  have  seen  mellowed 
and  sweetened  by  the  servantship  of  sorrow. 
All  our  visits  to  them  showed  clearly  that 
sorrow  was  doing  gracious  service.  The 
"weight  of  glory"  was  more  and  more  ap- 
parent. The  "good"  produced  by  the  "all 
things"  gave  increasing  evidence  that  the 
"servant"  was  doing  his  work.  When  any 
close  observer  of  life  writes  down  his  lists  of 
saints  he  will  always  find  that  he  has  been 
compelled  to  canonize  many  who,  like  their 
Master,  have  been  made  "perfect  through 
suffering." 


208  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

The  quotation  of  these  words  about  Christ 
reminds  us  that  the  world  turns  to  him  as  to 
the  last  resort  for  the  sorrowing.  Here,  as 
in  all  other  studies,  we  find  the  climax  in  him. 
As  he  entered  into  all  forms  of  work,  so  did 
he  enter  into  all  forms  of  sorrow.  Is  it  home- 
lessness?  Is  it  privation?  Is  it  misunder- 
standing? Is  it  anxiety  for  others?  Is  it 
anticipated  suffering?  Is  it  evil  accusation? 
Is  it  ridicule?  Is  it  shame?  Is  it  mockery? 
Is  it  torture?  Is  it  utter  disgrace?  Is  it 
abandonment?  Is  it  denial?  Is  it  betrayal? 
Is  it  death?  All  these  he  knew.  If  the  wisest 
and  holiest  suffer  most,  he  knew  all  these 
sorrows  at  their  deepest.  None  could  really 
join  with  him  in  chanting  the  real  De  Pro- 
fundis.  He  trod  the  winepress  alone,  and  of 
the  people  there  was  none  with  him.  The 
world  that  left  him  alone  in  his  sorrow  does 
not  wish  him  to  leave  it  alone  in  its  sorrow. 
It  seeks  him  then.  It  hears  him  as  he  promises, 
not  immunity  from  suffering,  but  the  experi- 
ence of  overcoming  in  suffering :  "Be  of  good 
cheer:  I  have  overcome  the  world.''  He  put 
a  deeply  personal  quality  into  his  assurance, 
"I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless ;  I  will  come 
to  you.''  "I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  aeons."  So  runs  the  promise. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  the  troubled  flee  to  him. 
The  Man  of  Sorrows  draws  the  men  of  sor- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        209 

rows.  His  benediction  of  peace  is  not  formal. 
With  the  authority  and  with  the  reserves  of 
comfort  at  his  command,  he  still  says,  "Let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled." 

To  the  usual  messages  of  consolation  he  now 
adds  the  eternal  reason,  "In  my  Father's  house 
are  many  mansions :  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would 
have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you."  Well  did  Carlyle  say  that  if  Jesus  were 
only  man,  he  had  no  right  to  utter  these  words. 
But  Jesus  said  much  more.  He  would  pre- 
pare the  place.  He  would  come  again.  He 
would  receive  them  into  his  company.  If  some 
doubter  shall  ask  about  the  way,  his  reply 
shall  be  the  same  as  of  old,  "I  am  the  way." 
Through 'him  alone  we  come  to  the  Father. 
Full  trust  in  him  removes  all  bitter  tears: 
and  the  remainder  of  tears  he  does  not  rebuke. 
He  inspires  the  visions  wherein  we  see  those 
who  have  come  up  out  of  great  tribulation 
hungering  no  more,  nor  thirsting  any  more, 
nor  smitten  by  the  sun  or  any  heat;  but  fed 
by  the  Lamb  and  led  by  him  amid  fountains 
of  living  waters,  while  God  wipes  away  all 
tears  from  their  eyes. 

This  doctrine  of  heaven  as  a  consolation 
for  sorrow  is  not  born  of  selfishness,  as  is 
often  charged.  The  rankest  of  infidels  said, 
"In  the  night  of  death,  hope  sees  a  star,  and 
listening  love  can  hear  the  rustle  of  a  wing." 


210  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

Not  "listening  selfishness,"  but  "listening 
love" !  The  love  that  we  bear  to  our  own  and 
to  all  mankind  seeks  this  vision  and  finds  it 
waiting  in  the  divine  plan.  Is  it  selfish  to 
desire  that  for  ourselves  which  will  injure 
none  others?  Is  it  selfish  to  long  for  that 
which  will  meet  the  longings  of  the  whole 
world?  Verily  some  critics  discover  strange 
dictionaries  when  they  define  words  in  refer- 
ence to  the  holy  faith.  But  all  the  while  the 
afilicted  seek  the  face  of  Christ.  Troubles 
look  unto  him  and  are  lightened.  The  poor 
man  cries  and  the  Lord  still  delivers  him  out 
of  his  troubles.  Our  Bibles  and  our  Hymnals 
personalize  the  haven  for  us.  He  is  the  Rock 
of  Ages.  His  bosom  is  the  Refuge.  To  him 
we  go  when  shadows  darkly  gather.  A  present 
help  is  he.  The  last  low  whispers  of  our  dead 
are  burdened  with  his  name.  The  suffering 
world  states  its  comfort  in  terms  of  Christ 
himself. 

For  the  final  sorrow  of  death  he  offers  the 
full  consolation.  The  tragedy  of  separation 
remains.  Our  indictment  against  death  is 
that  of  Tennyson: 


He  puts  our  lives  so  far  apart, 
We  cannot  hear  each  other  speak. 


The  more  worthy  of  immortality  our  beloved 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SORROW        211 

seems  to  be,  the  keener  is  the  pang  of  parting. 
Lowell  felt  it  so  "After  the  Burial'' : 

Immortal!     I  feel  it  and  know  it, 
Who  doubts  it  of  such  as  she? 

But  that  is  the  pang's  very  secret — 
Immortal  away  from  me. 

The  Bible  has  no  rebuke  for  the  sorrow  of 
separation.  But  it  does  have  the  healing  hope 
of  eternal  reunion.  Jesus  said:  "I  am  the 
resurrection,  and  the  life:  he  that  believeth 
on  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live : 
and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall 
never  die."  These  words,  fully  believed,  still 
our  fear,  confirm  our  hope,  and  comfort  our 
final  sorrow. 

To  all  the  burdened,  Jesus  says,  "Come  unto 
me,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  To  all  the 
joyless  he  says,  "I  will  see  you  again,  and  your 
heart  shall  rejoice,  and  your  joy  no  man  taketh 
from  you."  To  all  the  lonely  and  mourning 
he  comes  with  the  message,  "Let  not  your 
heart  be  troubled:  ye  believe  in  God,  believe 
also  in  me."  The  world  may  have  difficulty  in 
securing  that  belief ;  but  the  world  knows  well 
that  this  belief  alone  is  the  defeat  of  sorrow. 
In  their  best  and  most  desperate  and  most 
hopeful  hours  men  flee  to  the  Bible  as  to  the 
only  tent  in  which  their  anguish  can  be 
soothed.     Within  that  tabernacle  walks  the 


212  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

form  of  the  Fourth.  When  they  turn  from 
him,  they  must  return  with  the  question, 
"Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life."  The  eternal  life  that 
he  gives  is  the  only  consolation  for  our  passing 
sorrows. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Bible  and  Practice 

When  men  separate  the  Bible  from  devo- 
tion and  practice  they  are  guilty  of  the  final 
heresy  in  relation  to  the  Book  of  Life.  The 
previous  pages  have  shown  that  the  Bible  has 
a  real  message  for  actual  living.  While  the 
larger  departments  have  been  treated,  it  is 
still  true  that  the  message  of  the  Scriptures 
for  other  sections  of  life  is  vital  and  funda- 
mental. Whatever  we  may  say  about  the 
message  of  the  Bible  in  regard  to  chemistry, 
or  biology,  or  geology;  whatever  we  may  say 
about  its  inspiration  for  the  literature  of  the 
world;  and  whatever  we  may  say  about  its 
accuracy  in  matters  of  ancient  history  and 
geography — the  Book  holds  a  lonely  primacy 
as  the  Book  of  Duty.  The  scientist  may  not 
get  from  it  a  full  revelation;  the  litterateur 
may  be  tempted  to  omit  certain  portions  from 
his  "choice  selections'' ;  the  historian  may  not 
find  in  it  a  full  or  chronological  list  of  events ; 
but  the  man  with  a  moral  and  spiritual  pas- 
sion, the  man  bent  on  finding  his  duty  that  he 
may   do   it   faithfully,    will    discover   ample 

213 


214  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

material  in  its  pages.  Indeed,  he  will  have  a 
sense  of  surplus.  The  ideals  of  the  Book  will 
be  so  far  beyond  his  performance  as  to  give 
him  the  feeling  of  a  gentle  rebuke.  As  a  Book 
of  moral  science,  moral  literature,  moral  his- 
tory, the  Bible  has  no  competitors.  As  a 
revelation  of  the  heart  of  God,  of  the  heart  of 
man,  and  of  the  way  in  which  the  heart  of  God 
and  the  heart  of  man  are  brought  into  loving 
harmony,  the  Bible  is  supreme. 

The  great  difficulty  in  the  use  of  the  Bible 
has  come  from  wrenching  it  from  this  main 
purpose.  Confusion  is  sure  to  arise  when- 
ever any  volume  is  employed  apart  from  its 
primary  intent.  If  one  wishes  to  learn  mathe- 
matics, and  his  foolish  teacher  shall  give  him 
a  book  of  music,  the  result  is  not  edifying. 
The  pages  of  the  book  may  be  properly  num- 
bered, and  the  scales  of  music  may  be  denoted 
by  the  correct  fractions;  but  mathematics 
represents  a  thoroughly  subordinate  purpose, 
and  the  volume  does  not  lead  easily  on  to 
Calculus.  The  result  is  even  more  confusing 
if  the  arithmetic  be  handed  to  a  pupil  who 
wishes  to  study  versification.  The  multiplica- 
tion table  may  look  like  verses  when  seen  at 
some  distance;  still  the  arithmetic's  main  in- 
tent is  not  the  teaching  of  poetry.  The  illus- 
trations of  possible  confusion  could  be  taken 
from  all  fields.    The  common  sense  of  the  race 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE       215 

saves  it  from  the  blunder  of  misapplying  the 
most  of  its  books.  The  Bible,  however,  has 
been  subjected  to  misapplication  because  the 
theory  of  its  infallibility  has  often  been  made 
to  cover  a  wide,  not  to  say  a  universal,  range. 
The  student  who  goes  to  the  Bible  with  a  pur- 
pose that  is  mainly  historical,  or  scientific,  or 
geographical,  or  genealogical,  or  mathematical, 
or  even  poetical  and  literary,  may  not  find  all 
his  wishes  gratified.  But  the  student  who 
seeks  its  pages  under  a  profound  sense  of  God 
and  with  an  equally  profound  ^dll  to  do  God's 
vnll  is  certain  to  find  material  for  all  his  moral 
and  spiritual  ambitions. 

Consequently  when  the  religious  attitude 
toward  the  Bible  is  changed  into  a  profes- 
sional or  critical  or  debating  attitude,  the 
Book  is  deflected  from  its  intent.  Doubtless 
we  must  have  in  the  realm  of  scholarship  some 
men  who  give  themselves  to  a  technical  dis- 
cussion of  the  Bible.  These  men  may  be 
charged  T\ith  the  duty  of  recovering  portions 
of  the  Book  to  reality;  and  they  may  have  an 
important,  but  secondary,  relation  to  its 
primary  purpose.  Nevertheless  their  attitude 
is  not  the  final  one.  It  would  be  useless  to 
deny  that  the  last  generation  has  mtnessed  a 
changed  attitude  toward  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
One  result  has  been  that  two  camps  have  been 
formed,  and  that  doughty  champions  of  a  view 


216  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

have  sallied  forth  from  each  camp  to  do  war- 
fare. The  missiles  have  been  verbal.  Some- 
times they  have  been  abusive.  Each  champion 
has  believed  himself  a  David  and  his  opponent 
a  Goliath.  The  unprejudiced  observer  of  the 
conflict  has  had  difficulty  in  deciding  which 
champion  has  been  most  guilty  of  a  wrong 
spirit.  The  conservative  has  called  the  pro- 
gressive various  names,  infidel,  atheist,  de- 
stroyer, betrayer,  a  successor  of  Judas  in  spirit 
and  of  Celsus  in  method!  The  progressive 
has  responded  in  kind  and  has  named  the 
conservative  a  reactionary,  an  intellectual 
coward,  a  defender  of  a  discredited  theory,  a 
foe  of  liberty,  and  a  traitor  to  the  truth.  The 
conservative  has  often  become  a  spiritual 
Pharisee  and  has  ruled  the  progressive  out  of 
court  on  the  ground  that  the  progressive 
lacked  piety,  while  the  progressive  has  often 
become  an  intellectual  Pharisee  and  has  ruled 
the  conservative  out  of  court  on  the  ground 
that  the  conservative  lacked  scholarship. 
There  have,  of  course,  been  conspicuous  in- 
stances of  breadth  and  catholicity  on  both 
sides,  but  occasionally  the  spirit  of  the  contest 
has  not  tended  to  exalt  the  mood  of  the  con- 
testants or  to  glorify  the  divine  Book. 

The  results  of  such  a  spirit  could  easily  be 
predicted:  they  cannot  make  for  edification. 
If  we  list  on  one  side  the  radical  conservatives 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      217 

and  on  the  otlier  side  the  radical  progressives, 
we  shall  discover  an  evangelical  helplessness 
in  both  lists.  In  each  case  a  conception  of  the 
Bible  supplants  the  purpose  of  the  Bible.  The 
champion  defends  a  doctrine  more  than  he 
promotes  a  life.  The  apologist  overcomes  the 
preacher.  The  theorist  destroys  the  evangelist. 
All  this  is  not  a  denial  that  the  speculative 
emphasis  has  its  place.  The  defender  of  the 
faith  will  always  have  his  place.  Usually  he 
must  work  in  the  background,  in  some  point 
of  scholarly  retreat.  The  pastor  and  preacher 
who  goes  into  a  community  with  the  idea  that 
his  main  mission  is  to  promote  a  special  view 
of  inspiration  is  doomed  to  failure,  while  he 
who  goes  into  a  community  with  the  idea  that 
his  main  mission  is  to  preach  the  salvation  of 
the  Bible  as  it  climaxes  in  Christ  cannot  fail 
utterly.  There  are  conservatives  and  pro- 
gressives whose  ministry  is  pitiably  weak,  and 
there  are  progressives  and  conservatives  whose 
ministry  is  grandly  strong.  The  difference 
comes  from  the  point  of  emphasis.  If  a  man 
is  more  anxious  to  prove  that  Moses  was  the 
sole  author  of  the  Pentateuch  than  he  is  to 
prove  that  Jesus  is  the  sole  author  of  salvation, 
his  ministry  will  answer  to  his  own  emphasis. 
If  a  man  is  more  anxious  to  prove  that  there 
were  two  Isaiahs  than  he  is  to  show  that  there 
is  one  only  name  given  among  men  whereby 


218  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

we  may  be  saved,  his  ministry  will  be  no  more 
important  than  is  his  contention.  The  primary 
purpose  of  the  Bible  is  not  the  revelation  of 
the  single  authorship  of  one  of  its  sections  or 
the  dual  authorship  of  one  of  its  books;  its 
primary  purpose  is  to  declare  that  One  is  our 
Master,  even  Christ. 

It  must  be  plain  that,  as  the  divine  revela- 
tion of  the  Bible  culminates  in  a  Life,  so  the 
human  intent  of  the  Bible  can  culminate  only 
in  lives.  The  purpose  of  the  Bible  is  met  in 
Practice.  If  we  adopt  the  military  figure  of 
life,  the  Bible  is  a  weapon  given  to  men  for 
moral  warfare.  Sometimes  in  its  own  pages 
the  Word  of  God  is  presented  under  the  figure 
of  a  Sword.  The  writers  could  not  have  had 
in  mind  the  Scriptures  as  we  have  them  now; 
but  the  principle  applies  to  every  revelation  by 
which  God  seeks  to  bring  men  to  the  under- 
standing and  doing  of  his  own  will.  When 
Isaiah  felt  divine  messages  burning  in  his 
heart  he  said,  "He  hath  made  my  mouth  like 
a  sharp  sword."  The  writer  of  Hebrews  took 
the  same  nervous  metaphor  and  wrote,  "The 
word  of  God  is  quick,  and  powerful,  and 
sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  piercing 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit, 
and  of  the  joints  and  marrow."  Paul  in  his 
description  of  the  Christian  armor  speaks  of 
"The  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      219 

of  God."  It  may  not  be  amiss,  then,  to  take 
this  highly  authorized  figure  of  speech  and  to 
employ  it  once  again — not  claiming,  of  course, 
that  our  particular  applications  were  in  the 
thought  of  the  first  users.  The  point  is  that 
under  the  ancient  military  system  the  sword 
had  its  main  intent,  and  that  it  never  did  its 
real  work  as  long  as  it  was  divorced  from  that 
intent.  There  were  wTong  uses  of  the  sword, 
and  there  were  secondary  uses  of  the  sword; 
and  there  was  but  one  primary  use  of  the 
sword. 

We  can  conceive  of  an  actual  sword  as  being 
used  in  different  ways  by  different  people.  A 
robber  seizes  it,  defends  himself  against  just 
arrest,  and  slashes  the  representatives  of  a 
righteous  law.  Evidently  the  sword  was  not 
made  for  that  purpose.  The  sportsman  takes 
the  sword,  tests  its  handle,  polishes  its  blade, 
tries  its  resiliency,  purchases  a  manual  of 
arms,  secures  the  best  teacher,  drills  himself 
in  its  use.  On  holidays  he  wears  a  flashy 
uniform,  marches  through  the  streets,  waves 
the  glittering  thing  over  his  head,  and  so 
makes  it  an  instrument  of  personal  flourish. 
This  use  is  not  evil,  but  it  does  not  stand  for 
the  weapon's  first  intent.  A  third  man,  with 
a  more  serious  mien,  secures  the  sword.  He 
is  enlisted  in  the  militia,  and  the  time  may 
come  when  it  will  be  necessary  for  him  to  go 


220  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

into  real  war.  He  tests  its  handle  and  polishes 
its  blade;  he  studies  the  manual  of  arms;  he 
seeks  the  best  masters;  he  practices  its  use 
through  many  months.  When  the  time  of  war 
actually  comes  this  man  draws  the  sword  from 
its  scabbard  and  goes  out  to  do  service  in  his 
country's  cause.  The  primary  purpose  of  the 
sword  is  met  only  in  this  earnest  use. 

The  three  men  may  represent  three  classes 
in  their  attitudes  toward  the  Bible.  The 
Bible  is  often  used  for  defense  in  immorali- 
ties. It  is  often  used  as  a  means  of  that  cheap 
skill  that  comes  near  to  personal  display.  It 
is  often  used  for  spiritual  defense  and  war- 
fare. The  robber's  use  is  evil.  The  parader's 
use  is  secondary.  The  warrior's  use  is 
primary. 

Many  illustrations  of  the  immoral  use  of 
the  Bible  could  be  given.  In  the  story  of  the 
temptation  of  Jesus  the  devil  is  pictured  as  a 
user  of  the  Scriptures,  and  he  has  not  been 
without  his  followers  in  an  unholy  use  of  a 
holy  record.  The  Bible  covers  a  wide  range 
of  thought  and  experience.  It  tells  of  all 
manner  of  sins.  It  deals  with  all  classes  of 
characters.  It  presents  the  lives  of  bad  men 
who  were  sometimes  good,  and  of  good  men 
who  were  occasionally  bad,  and  of  other  men 
who  were  quite  steadily  bad  or  good.  Thus  the 
Bible  gives  us  all  sorts  of  examples.     The 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      221 

record,  distorted  and  misapplied,  may  be  made 
to  justify  the  baldest  of  sins.  In  matters  of 
questionable  morality  men  are  ever  ready  to 
appeal  to  tlie  divine  Book,  and  even  for  ac- 
tions condemned  by  all  enlightened  moral 
judgment  the  Bible  is  sometimes  summoned 
as  an  advocate.  There  is  scarcely  a  sin  which 
has  not  had  a  passage  of  Scripture  presented 
as  its  excuse.  Men  have  justified  rash  murder 
on  the  ground  that  Moses  killed  the  cruel 
Egyptian  taskmaster.  As  was  shown  in  a 
previous  chapter  the  practices  of  the  patri- 
archs have  been  quoted,  even  in  the  halls  of 
Congress,  as  a  warrant  for  bigamy  and  polyg- 
amy. Men  in  the  midst  of  unreasoning  anger 
have  condoned  their  madness  by  reciting  the 
words,  "Be  ye  angry,  and  sin  not."  Jesus 
himself  named  to  the  Jews  a  sacrilegious  mis- 
use of  a  Bible  phrase  by  which  heartless  chil- 
dren excused  themselves  from  filial  duties. 
Illustrations  might  be  given  touching  almost 
every  phase  of  personal  life.  Even  as  in  old 
days  the  wicked  sometimes  fled  to  a  city  of 
refuge,  so  now  do  men  caught  in  an  evil  mood 
hide  themselves  behind  a  biblical  rampart. 

In  larger  social  matters  this  use  of  the  Bible 
has  been  fully  as  striking.  Human  slavery 
felt  secure  within  a  scriptural  fortress.  Wil- 
berforce  and  Clarkson  in  England,  and  Garri- 
son and  Phillips  in  America  were  compelled 


222  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

to  reply  to  biblical  arguments.  Charles 
Sumner,  at  a  meeting  in  Massachusetts,  spent 
an  entire  evening  in  replying  to  a  proslavery 
discussion  based  on  Paul's  letter  to  Philemon, 
arriving  duly  at  the  conviction  that  the  only 
logical  and  religious  result  of  the  apostle's 
words  to  Philemon  would  be  the  freeing  of 
slaves  in  the  name  of  Christian  brotherhood. 
So  pieces  of  Mosaic  legislation  and  scraps  of 
Pauline  regulation  were  used  to  conceal  the 
Golden  Rule  and  the  law  of  fraternity.  It  is 
easy  to  observe  here,  too,  that  as  men  advance 
in  ethical  life  this  use  of  the  Bible  ceases. 
Doubtless  in  twenty  years  no  one  has  heard 
the  Bible  quoted  in  behalf  of  slavery.  Yet  the 
biblical  argument  would  serve  quite  as  well 
for  reinstating  slavery  as  it  did  for  continu- 
ing slavery.  The  argument  dies  not  only  be- 
cause the  moral  consciousness  of  man  lives, 
but  also  because  the  moral  judgment  of  man 
perceives  that  the  general  principles  of  the 
Bible  are  utterly  opposed  to  human  slavery. 
The  man  who  proposed  to  bring  the  bondage 
of  men  back  into  the  social  life  of  the  world 
by  means  of  the  biblical  argument  would  be 
deemed  as  much  an  anachronism  as  his 
method  of  debate. 

This  same  evil  use  of  the  Bible  proceeds  to- 
day among  the  opponents  of  the  temperance 
reform.     Our   debate  with   the  saloonist  or 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      223 

brewer  or  wine  maker  never  goes  far  ere  we 
are  told  of  biblical  examples  of  drinking,  as 
well  as  that  Christ  turned  water  into  wine  in 
his  first  miracle  at  Cana  of  Galilee.  Saloon 
keepers  have  framed  and  have  placed  upon 
the  walls  of  their  alluring  palaces  Paul's 
advice  to  Timothy,  "Take  a  little  wine  for  thy 
stomach's  sake,  and  thine  often  infirmities." 
They  do  not  quote  the  verdict  that  wine  is  a 
mocker,  with  a  bite  like  that  of  a  serpent  and 
a  sting  like  that  of  an  adder — the  cause  of 
woes  and  sorrows  and  redness  of  eyes;  nor 
the  pronouncement  that  no  drunkard  can  in- 
herit the  Kingdom ;  nor  the  condemnation  laid 
upon  him  that  putteth  the  bottle  to  his  neigh- 
bor's lips.  Nor  do  they  put  forward  the  in- 
evitable drift  of  Paul's  law  of  charity  which 
commands  men  to  do  naught  that  will  make 
their  brothers  to  offend.  Nor  yet  do  they  heed 
the  sure  drift  of  the  Bible's  teaching  as  it 
comes  to  its  crown  in  Christ  himself.  The 
man  who  would  claim  that  Jesus  would  ap- 
prove the  modern  trafi&c  in  intoxicating 
liquors  would  convict  himself  of  amazing  per- 
versity and  ignorance.  There  are  increasing 
evidences  that  the  Master  of  life  is  now  finding 
an  effective  use  for  his  whip  of  cords  and  that 
there  is  beginning  a  retreat  greater  than  that 
of  the  ancient  thieves  and  dove  sellers.  The 
time  will  come  when  men  will  marvel  that  an 


224  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

attempt  was  ever  made  to  use  the  Bible  as  a 
foundation  for  the  trade  in  alcoholics. 

In  Scott's  Ivanhoe  there  is  given  an  example 
of  this  misuse  of  the  Bible,  as  well  as  an  ex- 
ample of  its  effective  rebuke.  Rebecca  the 
Jewess  is  beautiful  in  person,  as  she  is  in 
character.  Brian  de  Bois-Guilbert  is  a  member 
of  the  Order  of  the  Holy  Temple.  He  is  a 
dashing,  handsome,  hypocritical  crusader, 
both  a  military  and  a  moral  adventurer.  He 
turns  his  lewd  eye  toward  Rebecca.  She 
stands  by  an  open  window,  ready  to  throw 
herself  to  death  upon  the  rocks  far  beneath 
rather  than  to  submit  herself  to  his  wicked- 
ness. To  justify  his  black  intention  Guilbert 
mentions  the  conduct  of  David  and  Solomon, 
and  then  says  to  the  tempted  one,  "The  pro- 
tectors of  Solomon's  Temple  may  claim  license 
by  the  example  of  Solomon."  The  beautiful 
woman  makes  a  worthy  retort,  one  that  de- 
serves frequent  repetition:  "If  thou  readest 
the  Scriptures  and  the  lives  of  the  saints  only 
to  justify  thine  own  license  and  profligacy, 
thy  crime  is  like  that  of  him  who  extracts 
poison  from  the  most  helpful  herbs."  No 
honest  person  can  believe  in  Guilbert's  use  of 
the  Bible;  nor  can  any  honest  person  escape 
the  truth  of  Rebecca's  reply.  The  murderer's, 
the  bigamist's,  the  slaveholder's,  the  rum- 
seller's,  the  sensualist's  method  of  employing 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE       225 

the  Bible  is  the  final  blasphemy  against  the 
Holy  Word.  The  robbers  of  life  simply  steal 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit  in  order  that  they  may 
use  it  in  the  service  of  hell.  Wolves  in  sheep's 
clothing  and  devils  clad  in  the  livery  of  heaven 
are  apt  figures  of  speech  for  the  description  of 
this  perversity.  The  Bible  itself  speaks  of 
those  who  wrest  the  Scriptures  to  their  own 
destruction ! 

The  second  use  of  the  sword  moves  into  the 
realm  of  the  legitimate,  but  not  into  the  realm 
of  the  final.  Expert  swordsmanship  is  no 
crime,  even  as  it  is  not  the  highest  morality. 
The  Bible  has  long  been  one  of  the  favorite 
fields  of  the  critical  scholar.  Very  often  the 
search  has  been  for  technical  truth  rather  than 
for  vital  truth.  Heated  discussions  have  re- 
lated to  questions  of  dates  and  authorship. 
These  questions  are  not  to  be  ruled  out  as 
useless.  Sometimes  technical  truth  gives  the 
vital  truth  of  the  Bible  a  setting  that  makes 
it  more  forceful  and  persuasive.  It  was  in- 
evitable that  both  the  higher  critics  and  their 
opponents  would  sometimes  go  to  great  ex- 
tremes— the  critics  to  an  idolatry  of  intellect, 
their  opponents  to  an  idolatry  of  literalness. 
We  must  all  have  been  impressed  that  at  times 
when  the  spiritual  battle  has  been  intense  the 
warriors  have  stepped  aside  from  the  main 
conflict  in  order  that  they  might  discuss  how 


226  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

and  when  and  by  whom  the  Sword  and  its 
parts  were  fashioned ! 

We  may  change  the  figure  of  speech  for  a 
moment  and  modify  for  the  present  purpose 
a  borrowed  illustration.  A  man  finds  a 
casket  buried  deeply  in  his  yard.  The  vessel 
appears  to  have  been  constructed  a  long  time 
ago.  It  bears  upon  its  sides  characters  that 
are  difficult  of  translation.  There  is  even 
doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  the  metal.  The 
man  summons  the  other  members  of  the  fam- 
ily. They  open  the  vessel  and  discover  that 
it  is  filled  with  gold.  At  once  a  warm  dis- 
pute begins  over  several  questions.  Who 
made  the  casket?  When  was  it  made?  How 
many  persons  took  part  in  its  fashioning  and 
its  filling?  From  what  precise  mintage  did 
the  coins  come?  What  is  the  meaning  of  the 
peculiar  hieroglyphics  found  upon  its  sides? 
Are  all  the  coins  of  equal  value?  Whose 
images  are  stamped  upon  them?  The  debaters 
become  excited  over  these  mooted  matters. 
At  last  one  sensible  member  of  the  family 
suggests  that  it  is  apparent  that  by  right  of 
finding  this  particular  household  owns  the 
casket;  that  the  needs  of  the  members  are 
many;  that  the  gold,  even  though  the  coinage 
be  ancient,  can  be  turned  to  modern  use;  that 
the  questions  which  they  are  debating  can  be 
settled  only  by  metallurgists  and  historians 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE       227 

and  philologists,  if  they  are  to  be  settled  at 
all;  and  that,  pending  the  settlement  of  in- 
cidental issues,  the  wants  of  the  family  may 
be  richly  met  by  appropriating  the  contents 
of  the  casket !  The  illustration  scarcely  needs 
any  interpretation.  It  surely  does  represent 
the  attitude  which  the  devout  and  obedient 
heart  may  take  in  this  period  toward  the 
Holy  Book.  The  ancient  casket  that  we  call 
the  Bible  is  full  of  treasures.  This  much  lies 
beyond  doubt  or  debate.  While  the  learned 
philologists  and  historians  and  exegetes  sur- 
round the  casket  and  try  to  ascertain  the 
dates  of  its  parts,  the  names  of  its  authors, 
the  meaning  of  its  obscurities,  the  family  of 
God  may  continue  to  draw  on  its  exhaustless 
treasures.  Nor  are  there  wanting  signs  that 
more  and  more  our  age  is  adjusting  itself  to 
this  reverent  and  practical  use  of  the  Word 
of  God,  and  that  Professor  Dobschtitz  rightly 
contends  in  his  new  volume  that  the  Bible  is 
again  becoming  the  Book  of  Devotion. 

There  is  likewise  what  we  might  well  call 
the  "lowest''  criticism — the  spirit  that  uses  the 
Bible  as  a  volume  of  puzzles  rather  than  as  a 
volume  of  directions.  Many  a  man  has  spent 
more  time  in  speculating  about  where  Cain 
got  his  wife  than  he  has  in  trying  to  find  out 
how  to  make  his  own  wife  happy.  Many  a 
man  has  spent  more  time  in  trying  to  find  out 


228  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

about  the  Witch  of  Endor  as  an  excuse  for 
his  consulting  some  vulgar  fortune-teller  of 
modern  time  than  he  has  spent  in  trying  to 
learn  the  will  and  secure  the  guidance  of  the 
good  and  wise  God.  Many  a  man  has  spent 
more  time  in  discussing  Melchizedek,  who  had 
neither  ancestors  nor  descendants,  than  he  has 
spent  in  trying  to  learn  from  the  Bible  how 
he  himself  may  honor  his  forbears  and  may 
train  his  own  children  in  righteousness.  Many 
a  man  has  been  so  piqued  by  curiosity  about 
the  exact  nature  of  Saint  Paul's  "thorn  in  the 
flesh"  as  to  forget  the  teaching  that  the  grace 
of  God  can  make  us  equal  to  any  burden  and 
torment  of  life.  The  men  of  this  type  will 
not  allow  the  Bible  the  use  of  hyperbole. 
When  it  suits  their  contentious  mood  they 
become  strict  literalists.  Even  though  they 
themselves  may  declare  that  it  is  "raining 
pitchforks''  or  that  the  waves  are  dashing 
"mountain  high,"  they  will  insist  that  Christ's 
words  about  the  two  coats  and  the  two  cloaks 
and  the  two  miles  are  not  the  strong  urging 
of  much  forbearance  and  generosity,  but  the 
counsel  of  literal  folly.  Meanwhile  the  cer- 
tainties and  duties  of  the  Bible  outnumber  its 
riddles  and  its  curiosities  many-fold.  The  im- 
portunate call  to  holy  practice  ceases  not. 
From  each  of  a  thousand  passages  of  the  Good 
Book  there  issues  a  patient  rebuke  for  the 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE       229 

curiosity   monger,    "What   is   that   to   thee? 
Follow  thou  me." 

This  leads  us  to  the  third  use  of  the  sword 
as  seen  in  our  illustration.  The  gallant 
soldier  took  the  weapon  and  used  it  in  har- 
mony with  its  intent.  So  the  Bible  should 
be  employed  preeminently  as  a  means  of 
spiritual  defense  and  warfare.  The  Scriptures 
are  profitable,  not  for  immoral  justification, 
not  for  mere  criticism  however  exact  and 
searching,  not  for  the  solving  of  superficial 
riddles,  but  "for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  in- 
struction in  righteousness:  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished 
unto  all  good  works."  To  go  to  the  Bible  with 
the  motive  revealed  in  these  great  words  is 
to  recover  the  Bible  to  its  divine  purpose  as 
the  book  of  human  practice.  Such  a  motive 
lifts  the  volume  above  any  mere  literary  or 
historical  aspects.  There  is,  for  example,  the 
oft-quoted  story  about  Benjamin  Franklin's 
experience  at  the  Court  of  France.  He  was 
passing  an  evening  with  a  company  of  cultured 
ladies  and  gentlemen.  The  conversation 
turned  to  the  subject  of  Oriental  life.  Frank- 
lin read  aloud  to  the  company  the  book  of 
Ruth.  Struck  by  the  beautiful  simplicity  and 
spirit  of  the  narrative,  his  hearers  expressed 
their  delight  and  desired  to  know  in  what  book 
the  charming  pastoral  could  be  found  I    It  is 


230  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

safe  to  say  that  these  men  and  women  needed 
the  lesson  of  fidelity  in  the  book  of  Ruth  far 
more  than  they  needed  the  sense  of  its  literary 
merit. 

We  must  always  return  to  the  idea  that  the 
key  to  the  Bible  is  the  deeply  religious  in- 
stinct and  motive.  Nothing  else  will  really 
open  its  pages.  Nor  does  the  Bible  herein 
wholly  differ  from  other  erature.  There 
are  men  and  women  so  thoroughly  cultivated 
on  the  so-called  practical  side  of  their  natures 
that  it  would  be  punishment  for  them  to  read 
Whittier,  or  Longfellow,  or  Lowell,  or  Tenny- 
son for  a  full  hour.  The  demands  of  business 
or  social  life  have  killed  the  poetic  impulse. 
So  many  persons  may  crush  from  their  natures 
the  religious  instinct  and  then  wonder  why 
the  Bible  does  not  appeal  to  them !  The  truth 
seems  to  be  that  a  person  gets  from  the  Bible 
about  what  he  seeks.  It  takes  divinely  opened 
eyes  to  see  the  wondrous  things  in  the  law. 
The  psalmist,  therefore,  prayed  that  the 
change  might  come  over  himself  rather  than 
over  the  parchment.  The  way  to  illumine  the 
sacred  page  was  to  illumine  him.  The  Book 
may  lie  in  a  great  light,  but  what  can  the 
Book  do  for  a  man  with  closed  eyes?  Seneca 
tells  of  an  idiot  child  in  his  home  who,  be- 
coming blind,  insisted  always  that  the  room 
was  dark!    Herein  is  another  parable. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      231 

It  is  only  this  disposition  of  the  seeing  eye 
and  the  obedient  hand  that  can  bring  the 
Bible  to  us  in  its  main  purpose.  Having  this 
disposition  we  shall  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be 
lured  into  interesting  byways.  We  shall  have 
a  lamp  for  our  feet  and  a  light  for  our  path. 
Our  spiritual  purpose  Tvill  defeat  all  needless 
criticism  and  all  needless  dissection.  Having 
this  purpose,  we  will  turn  to  the  early  chap- 
ters of  Genesis.  Instead  of  debating  whether 
in  a  literal  garden  Adam  and  Eve  were 
tempted  by  a  literal  serpent  to  the  eating  of 
literal  fruit,  and  were  driven  through  a  literal 
gate,  while  a  literal  angel  with  a  literal  flame 
running  along  a  literal  blade  guarded  against 
reentrance,  we  shall  be  moved  by  the  thought 
that  we  have  lifted  ourselves  in  puny  rebel- 
lion against  God,  and  that  we  have  gone  forth 
from  our  place  of  innocence,  and  that  the  third 
chapter  of  Genesis  recounts  the  essential  his- 
tory of  our  souls.  Having  this  religious  pur- 
pose, we  shall  read  the  story  of  Job  with  a  view 
to  securing  its  spiritual  lesson.  We  shall  not 
permit  any  critical  arguer  to  confine  us  to 
the  question  of  the  historicity  of  Job  himself. 
We  shall  rather  lay  hold  of  the  teaching  of 
that  marvelous  book,  with  its  colossal  debate, 
and  we  shall  see  that,  whether  the  book  be  a 
history  or  a  parable  or  an  allegory,  it  drives 
crushing  suspicion  from  the  world  by  teaching 


232  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

that  suffering  is  not  always  the  result  of  sin, 
and  brings  cheerful  trust  into  the  world  by 
teaching  that  afflictions  bravely  endured  must 
have  their  reward.  The  man  who  back  in  that 
dim  and  far  age  got  hold  of  the  teaching  of 
the  book  of  Job  must  have  somehow  caught 
the  inspiration  of  God  himself.  The  common 
ground  in  all  these  mooted  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture is  really  a  large  and  wealthy  place;  but 
only  a  common  spiritual  purpose  will  ever 
bring  conservatives  and  progressives  together 
in  the  knowledge  and  peace  of  God. 

One  almost  hesitates  to  discuss  the  book  of 
Jonah  in  this  connection  because  petty  de- 
bates have  robbed  it  of  much  of  its  deeper 
meaning.  The  nature  of  the  book  doubtless 
lies  beyond  earthly  settlement.  Whether  we 
declare  that  Jonah's  journey  was  as  historical 
as  those  of  Saint  Paul,  or  that  it  was  as  para- 
bolic as  the  journey  of  the  prodigal  son,  we 
can  find  no  sure  end  of  the  debate.  But  all 
the  while  the  teaching  of  the  book  waits  for 
our  obedience.  The  individual  lesson  seems 
to  be  that  whenever  a  man  turns  his  ship  from 
the  Nineveh  of  duty  toward  the  Tarshish  of 
pleasure  he  will  directly  come  to  rough  and 
perilous  seas.  In  other  words,  the  man  who 
flees  from  his  God-assigned  work  sooner  or 
later  gets  into  trouble.  The  missionary  lesson 
is  just  as  plain.     Back  yonder  in  a  time  of 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE       233 

racial  narroT\Tiess,  some  one  caught  the  in- 
spiration from  God  and  declared  that  the 
Lord  of  all  the  earth  cared  for  all  the  people 
of  the  earth.  The  infinite  love  traveled  be- 
yond all  our  little  boundaries.  The  personal 
lesson  and  the  missionary  lesson  of  the  book 
of  Jonah  are  sufficient  to  keep  individuals  and 
churches  busy  for  a  thousand  years  to  come. 
The  spirit  with  which  we  approach  the  book 
of  Jonah  \sdll  decide  whether  we  shall  become 
petty  debaters,  or  men  and  women  Tvith  dutiful 
purpose  and  missionary  zeal. 

The  conclusion  is  that  when  we  seek  the 
Bible  Tvith  the  motive  of  holy  practice  we 
never  meet  Tsith  disappointment.  The  reli- 
gious purpose  saves  the  Book  for  us  and  saves 
us  by  the  Book.  This  purpose  will  likewise 
bring  us  face  to  face  ^dth  the  Hero  of  the 
Divine  Word.  Other  sacred  literatures  may 
offer  us  high  moral  precepts,  and  they  may 
occasionally  give  us  glimpses  of  spiritual 
ideals.  But  one  Book  alone  gives  us  Christ. 
One  Book  alone  reveals  the  Redeemer.  The 
climax  of  practice  to  which  the  Scriptures 
call  us  is  the  folloT\ing  of  Christ.  In  all  our 
studies  in  these  chapters  we  have  found  that 
the  supreme  lessons  centered  in  his  teaching 
and  in  his  example.  The  Man,  the  Home,  the 
School,  the  Workshop,  the  Market  Place,  the 
Playground,  and  the  Hospital  all  wait  upon 


234  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

him  for  their  guidance  and  their  warning. 
But  Jesus  is  more  than  the  way  and  the  truth ; 
he  is  the  Life.  He  is  more  than  the  Exemplar 
of  Practice ;  he  is  the  Helper  in  Practice.  He 
walks  the  pages  of  the  Bible  even  as  he  walked 
the  ancient  paths,  and  his  disciples  may  still 
say,  "Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world."  Other  sacred 
books  may  offer  revelations  of  morality;  the 
Bible  offers  the  revelation  of  a  Saviour.  The 
Bible  is  not  its  own  goal.  Jesus  is  the  end  of 
its  revelation.  The  devout  in  all  ages  have 
been  ready  to  use  the  heart  of  the  verse  of  a 
familiar  hymn: 

Beyond  the  sacred  page, 

I  seek  thee,  Lord; 
My  spirit  pants  for  thee. 

Thou  living  W^ord. 

If  men  seek  the  Exemplar  who  will  give  them 
a  goal  for  their  practice,  they  find  such  an 
Exemplar  in  the  Christ  of  the  Bible.  If  they 
seek  the  Inspirer  who  will  give  them  a  longing 
for  the  perfect  practice,  they  will  find  that 
Inspirer  in  the  Christ  of  the  Bible.  If  men 
seek  the  Saviour  who  will  help  them  on  to  the 
perfect  practice,  they  will  find  that  Helper  in 
the  Christ  of  the  Bible. 

Indeed,  it  may  be  said  to  be  characteristic 
of  the  Bible  that  it  not  only  offers  the  perfect 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      235 

program,  but  that  it  offers  the  perfect  help. 
This  was  true  even  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Jehovah  was  the  strength  of  life.  His  power 
was  as  immediate  as  his  presence.  He  was  a 
present  help  in  time  of  trouble.  He  was  a 
present  Guide  in  time  of  perplexity.  The 
Christian  revelation  seems  to  bring  that  con- 
sciousness of  divine  help  nearer  to  men,  and 
to  make  it  more  real.  Hence  the  Christian 
faith  goes  over  all  the  world  seeking  to  win 
men  to  God  and  his  righteousness.  Every- 
where it  proclaims  a  redeeming  God.  An 
ideal  without  a  Saviour  may  become  a  de- 
spair— a  tormenting  impossibility,  the  lure  of 
the  final  falsehood.  The  Bible  gives  the  ideal 
and  then  it  adds,  "It  is  God  which  worketh  in 
you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good 
pleasure."  The  Bible  warns  against  tempta- 
tion, and  then  it  tells  of  One  who  was  himself 
tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  yet  with- 
out sin,  of  One  who  is  able  to  succor  them 
that  are  tempted.  The  religion  of  the  dead 
code  becomes  the  religion  of  the  living  Person. 
The  Ideal  becomes  Example,  and  both  Ideal 
and  Example  are  found  in  a  Saviour. 

With  all  this  in  our  purpose,  as  well  as  in 
our  creed,  we  come  to  the  Bible  in  full  har- 
mony with  its  primary  intent.  We  find  now 
that  for  every  moral  and  spiritual  emergency 
the  Book  has  its  message.     If  it  were  neces- 


236  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

sary  we  could  list  these  emergencies  and  show 
the  word  that  the  Bible  has  for  each  of  them. 
Here  is  an  illustration  that  serves  as  well  as  a 
thousand  for  making  the  main  point.  The 
Gideons  have  been  placing  the  Bibles  in  the 
hotels  of  America.  Travelers  seldom  go  to 
their  rooms  without  seeing  upon  the  table  a 
copy  of  the  Book.  The  organization  that  has 
done  this  good  work  often  receives  accounts, 
anonymous  or  otherwise,  of  the  help  given  by 
the  Bibles  that  its  work  has  supplied.  Here 
is  a  letter  received  from  a  young  woman : 

Perhaps  a  word  will  help  you  to  realize  that  the  little 
"Good  Book"  on  the  table  in  a  lonely  hotel  room  helps 
some.  Last  night,  after  fighting  the  fight  that  any 
young  woman  with  any  appearance  fights,  I  found  my- 
self in  Chicago  at  this  hotel.  I  had  papers,  magazines, 
books,  and  other  reading  matter,  but  for  a  joke — yes, 
joke — I  picked  up  the  Bible.  It  fell  open  at  the  seven- 
tieth psalm.  Can  you  imagine  the  impression  it  made 
on  me?  I  read  it  again  and  again.  Needless  to  say, 
it  helped  and  I  feel  better,  happier,  and  not  so  much 
alone. 

Picture  the  full  circumstances,  and  we  may 
feel  that  the  help  went  deeper  and  wrought 
more  than  this  letter  indicates.  If  this  young 
woman  was  at  the  beginning  of  that  dreadful 
path  of  death  that  invites  careless  travelers, 
how  much  must  these  ancient  words,  so 
graciously  modern,  have  meant  to  her?  ^'Make 
haste,  O  God,  to  deliver  me;  make  haste  to 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      237 

help  me,  O  Lord.  Let  them  be  ashamed  and 
confounded  that  seek  after  my  soul :  let  them 
be  turned  backward,  and  put  to  confusion,  that 
desire  mj  hurt.  Let  them  be  turned  back  for 
a  reward  of  their  shame  that  say,  Aha,  Aha. 
Let  all  those  that  seek  thee  rejoice  and  be 
glad  in  thee:  and  let  such  as  love  thy  salva- 
tion say  continually.  Let  God  be  magnified. 
But  I  am  poor  and  needy;  make  haste  unto 
me,  O  God :  thou  art  my  help  and  my  deliverer ; 
O  Lord,  make  no  tarrying."  Any  study  of 
the  authorship  or  date  of  this  seventieth 
psalm,  or  any  theorizing  as  to  the  identity  of 
^'The  chief  musician,"  or  even  any  discussion 
of  the  particular  circumstances  under  which 
the  words  were  originally  written  would  not 
have  solved  the  life  problem  of  a  young  woman 
coaxed  on  toward  carelessness.  The  psalm 
was  penned  to  make  God  real,  and  his  help 
real.  Doubtless  it  performed  that  office  long 
ago;  and  surely  it  performs  that  office  now 
whenever  a  needy  heart  supplicates  the  good 
God  by  means  of  the  ancient  prayer.  ^^Thy 
word  have  I  hid  in  my  heart,  that  I  might  not 
sin  against  thee" — this  was  the  psalmist's 
statement  as  to  the  reason  for  carrying  por- 
tions of  the  ancient  revelation  with  him  on 
all  his  journeys.  "Where^sithal  shall  a  young 
man  cleanse  his  way?  By  taking  heed  thereto 
according  to  thy  word" — this  was  the  use  of 


238  THE  BIBLE  AND  LIFE 

God's  Word  prescribed  for  all  time.  The 
writer  of  the  one  hundred  and  nineteenth 
psalm  did  not  have  our  Bible,  but  when  he 
wrote  these  two  verses  he  had  within  him  the 
purpose  of  our  Bible.  He  brought  the  ancient 
law  within  its  primary  intent,  and  he  gave 
the  principle  by  which  all  later  Scripture 
should  be  employed.  The  Bible  is  to  be  placed 
in  the  heart  as  a  defense  against  sin.  The 
Bible  is  intended  to  cleanse  the  ways  of  life. 
The  Bible  is  given  to  lead  us  to  Him  who  is 
himself  the  Perfect  Life  and  who  offers  the 
Divine  Grace. 

All  this  means  that  the  best  apologetic  for 
the  Bible  is  the  earnest  and  honest  use  of  the 
Bible.  We  may  well  use  the  apostle's  fine 
phrase  and  say  that  those  persons  who  follow 
the  ideals  of  the  Bible  under  the  inspiration 
of  the  Saviour  of  the  Bible  are  "living  epistles 
known  and  read  of  all  men."  They  are  the 
modern  evidences  for  the  ancient  Book,  the 
human  and  divine  proofs  of  the  human  and 
divine  Book.  The  Bible  does  not  fail  the  soul 
that  searches  its  pages  for  the  paths  of  truth 
and  righteousness.  The  prayer  of  the  ritual 
is  that  we  may  "read,  mark,  learn,  and  in- 
wardly digest,  that  by  patience  and  comfort  of 
thy  Holy  Word  we  may  embrace  and  ever  hold 
fast  the  blessed  hope  of  everlasting  life."  In 
everything  that  bears  on  making  men  worthy 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PRACTICE      239 

subjects  of  everlasting  life  the  Bible  is  the 
sure  guide.  All  sincere  souls  that  come  to  its 
chapters  with  this  primary  and  spiritual  in- 
tent will  find  their  due  reward.  They  may 
stand  before  the  open  Book  confident  that  the 
voice  of  God  A\ill  speak  through  the  written 
Word  and  determined  that  they  themselves 
shall  ever  be  in  the  attitude  of  eager  listeners, 
saying,  "Speak,  Lord;  for  thy  servants  hear." 


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